Patents

How to register abroad

A patent or utility model granted by INPI provides legal protection only in Portugal, and not in any other country.
Industrial property rights are locally applicable rights, only enjoying protection in the country in which they were registered.
For example, if your invention is registered in Portugal, you can only claim your rights in Portugal, and you cannot prevent someone in Spain from producing or selling a similar invention to yours. You can only prevent that person from exporting the protected product to Portugal.

In order to guarantee protection for an invention abroad, the Industrial Property System offers various options:

• Apply for a patent or utility model directly to the countries where you intend to protect the invention;
• Apply for a European patent;
• Apply for an international patent (via PCT – Patent Cooperation Treaty).

The choice between applying for protection directly in a country, or applying for a European or international patent, depends on how much geographical scope you would like for the protection of your invention.
Filing a European or international patent application allows you to extend protection for your invention to a large number of countries: a European patent is valid in the countries that are signatories to the Munich Convention , and an international patent is valid in the countries that are signatories to the Patent Cooperation Treaty.
These international treaties allow you to obtain protection through a simple process (a single form in only one language), and at a reduced cost (when compared to the fees that would be incurred for applying to each country individually).

Attention! Claiming priority

If you would like to make use of any of these means of protection abroad, your patent or utility model application filed in Portugal allows you to use a priority right of 12 months to file your application in another country (in any member state of the World Trade Organization or the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property).
If this time limit is respected, the application made abroad will be regarded as having been filed at the same date as the original application made in Portugal. This can be very advantageous, since nothing that occurs between these two dates (for example, another application), can invalidate it.
Do not forget that in order to use a priority right for an application filed with INPI, you must claim this right in the applications you file in other countries, by including the number, date and country of origin of your original application.