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The United States Patent and Trademark Office

The United States Patent and Trademark Office is a wonderful resource for independent inventors. With information ranging from patents & trademarks to scam prevention, the USPTO is there to help you. (more…)

Question: My company owns the rights to a product that has a US patent and trademark.
I am currently receiving some interest from overseas buyers, but the product is not internationally
protected. The inventor did not register the patent internationally and the patent is a few years old. I am
considering filing a trademark application under the Madrid protocol but wondered if there is anyway to protect the product from being copied overseas. Are there such things as international trade agreements or non-disclosures that would prevent foreign parties from copying the formula and packaging?

Answer: Hello Rob, This is Steve replying.
Only if we could see into the future…. We would know whether to
invest in patenting inventions overseas or not. What I recommend to my clients is that they file for an International Patent Application via the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) after filing for their patent applications in the United States. (more…)