What is a PCT application?
The acronym PCT stands for Patent Cooperation Treaty. You can apply for a patent in a number of countries by means of a single application procedure and the number of signatory countries to the PCT currently stands at 138. This application is followed by an international novelty search and possibly a provisional assessment of your patent application.If you subsequently wish to pursue a patent application in different countries or regions, you may use the report obtained during the PCT procedure for this purpose. In that case, you do not need to have separate novelty searches carried out in each country.
A PCT application does not result in a patent being granted, but instead results in a bundle of applications. A worldwide patent does therefore not exist.
