A patent application can be requested in virtually all country in the world.
To file a first patent application relating to an invention, it may be chosen to file in any country, in a Region (a system comprising several countries as for the European patent (EP) or to go through an International Patent Application via the PCT treaty system [WO].
However, the provisions relating to National Defense require a French depositor or resident in France to submit his application to INPI (Institut National Industrial Property), or to obtain prior authorization to file before a foreign patent office by submitting to the authorities the text of the patent application.
On the administrative level the simplest remains to file an application to the INPI which can be:
- a French patent application
- a European patent application
- an international patent application
For these last two possibilities, the INPI acts simply as an intermediary and transmits the application, once the authorization of the National Defense obtained, to the patent office concerned, the European Patent Office (EPO) for a EP application and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for a PCT application.
