This is a particularly good strategy for an applicant who hopes to sell or license the patent rights to a large multi-national corporation, which will hopefully place a higher value on the transaction if all of the PCT patent rights are intact. A better strategy for many U.S. applicants is to designate only those countries in which the applicant is likely to exploit the invention. A further consideration is designating only those countries in which the legal system is sufficiently sound to be an effective vehicle for enforcing patent rights. The decision to pursue a patent should be evaluated in a cost-benefit analysis, and many applicants can eliminate many countries from consideration at the designation stage of the PCT process. Even for many multi-national companies, only three or four designations can often cover the countries in which patent protection will likely be cost effective.
Brazil are also fairly common. . . .
The most important regional convention for many U.S. companies is the European Patent Convention, which provides unified patent examination and issuance for its 18 member countries. The EPC, which is administered by the EPO, is a centralized filing, examining, and patent-granting procedure for its member Western European countries, including all 15 members of the European Union, formerly known as the European Community. This bundle of patents is less expensive to obtain than individual national patents if the applicant designates three or more countries in the EPO application. Significant savings are realized in translation costs alone through the end of the examination procedure. These costs are, for the most part, deferred until the patent examiner has approved the English version of the patent application.