Global Collaborations And Foreign Filing Licenses

Article by Pervin R. Taleyarkhan, Stephen Yang, Ashwani Balayan, Peter A. van Essen, and Phung-Ha Nguyen

With the rapid pace at which technology is advancing and the ease of communication among parties residing across the globe, our world has become a whole lot smaller than it was even a decade ago. As a result, companies' operations are expanding on global scales. Research and product development collaborations are increasing across country borders, as are partnerships and other co-development opportunities. These global collaborations can result in amazing innovations. In all the excitement and quest to protect the innovation with a patent application, practitioners and patent applicants often do not consider the timing, or even the need, for satisfying a very key aspect of the patent application filing process: the foreign filing license.