Retroactive Foreign Filing Licenses (Patent)

Summary

This practice note discusses the legal considerations and procedures that a patent practitioner must review and be aware of before filing a petition for a retroactive foreign filing license at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). This is necessary when a patent application for an invention made in the U.S. is filed in a foreign country without the required foreign filing license, which is primarily for national security reasons. The note explains that a foreign filing license is needed if no U.S. application was filed or if it was filed less than six months prior, with exceptions for inventions not made in the U.S. or those not under a secrecy order and filed in the U.S. at least six months before the foreign filing.