Look Back To Move Forward: Capturing IP Within The One-Year Grace Period

For many emerging tech companies, pursuing patent protection often interferes with the company's short-term objectives of increasing revenues, increasing customer adoption, and raising financing rounds. As a result, many companies choose to forego filing for patents when they first launch their product or service, thinking that if the company's technology gets traction in the market, they can always seek patents later.  However, many foreign countries limit or prohibit filing for patent protection covering technology that has already been included in a product that has been launched or disclosed to the public. The U.S. provides a "one-year grace period," which allows companies to obtain patents on inventions that they have disclosed or included in a product release within one year of the disclosure or product release.