Priority
If an application in respect of the same invention was filed up to
12 months earlier in either Ireland, the European Patent Office or a
country that is a party to the Paris Convention for the Protection of
Industrial Property, the filing date of the earlier application becomes
the "priority date" of the new application.
This period of 12
months allows an applicant for a patent, having established a filing
date for their invention in one jurisdiction, time to assess its
commercial potential market, continue the development of the invention
and to decide in which countries protection is to be sought without
losing their priority right. If there has been more than one earlier
filing (e.g. if an application has been made in the UK and Germany in
respect of the same invention) this can give rise to more than one
priority date in respect of a subsequent Irish application; however,
time limits which are started to run from the date of priority run from
the earliest of such priority dates.
The main effect of the
priority right is that the filing date of the first application counts
as the date from which the state of the art is assessed against the
application and where 2 or more persons make an invention
independently, the right to a patent belongs to the person whose filing
date or claimed priority date is the earliest.
Claim to priority
Any priority claim must be made in the request for grant (Form
No. 1) indicating the date of filing, the country and filing number of
the previous application. A certified copy of the previous application must
also be supplied within 16 months of the earliest priority date, if it
was a foreign application. This certified copy should be obtained from
the Office abroad where this earlier application was made.
Where
the claim to priority is based on an earlier Irish application, the
applicant may, instead of submitting a certified copy, request that
such a copy be included with their application. In this case the
Patents Office will arrange for a copy of the earlier application to be
associated with the new application, on payment of the prescribed fee.