          
          
          
                                   Patents
          
               U.S. patent law differs from the laws of most other 
          countries in several important aspects. The U.S. patent law 
          grants a patent to the first inventor even if another 
          person independently makes the invention and files an 
          application first. Most other countries award the patent to 
          the inventor who first files a patent application. The 
          United States also provides a one-year "grace period" that 
          does not preclude an inventor from obtaining protection 
          after an act such as publishing, offering for sale, or 
          using the invention, which would make the invention public. 
          Most countries have no such grace period to allow an 
          inventor to so disclose the invention prior to filing a 
          patent application. In countries with an "absolute novelty" 
          rule, a patent application must be filed before making the 
          invention public anywhere. Hence, even the publication of 
          an invention in a U.S. patent grant is a disclosure that 
          can defeat the right to obtain foreign patents, unless the 
          applicant is entitled to claim the "right of priority" 
          under the Paris Convention, as previously described.
          
               Unlike the United States, many countries require that 
          an invention be "worked" locally in order to retain the 
          benefit of the patent. "Working" may require 
          commercial-scale manufacture within the country, or may be 
          met by importation of goods covered by the patent, 
          depending upon a particular country's law. The Paris 
          Convention permits penalties for non-working, which may 
          include a compulsory license at a reasonable royalty 
          followed by possible forfeiture of the patent for 
          continuing to fail to work an invention.
          
               For an invention made in the United States, U.S. law 
          prohibits filing abroad without a foreign filing license 
          from the Patent and Trademark Office unless six months have 
          elapsed since filing a U.S.  application. This prohibition 
          protects against transfer of information which might damage 
          the national security. The penalties for filing abroad 
          without following these requirements range from loss of 
          U.S. patent rights to possible imprisonment if classified 
          information is released. Recent procedural improvements 
          have significantly reduced the time it takes to obtain a 
          license in the majority of cases. In practice, this 
          requirement generally imposes a minimal inconvenience. In 
          addition, other export control laws require that a license 
          be obtained prior to the export of certain technologies, 
          even if no patent application is filed, or bar their export 
          altogether.
          
          
