19/11/2025
This article is part of our start-up and entrepreneur series of general guidance intended for patent applicants based in the UK or Europe.
Having carefully prepared a first patent application for filing, many start-up and early stage tech companies then struggle with the question of where to file first. We discuss the pros and cons of some different filing options below. This article assumes that there are no security requirements requiring that the initial application be filed at the national patent office of the country where the inventors are domiciled.
The United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office
First-filing your patent application at the UK Intellectual Property Office (the UK Patent Office) offers a number of advantages compared with other patent offices.
The UK Patent Office has considerably lower official fees than many other patent offices around the world. Paying just a few hundred pounds gets your application on file, and pays the fees for search and examination, meaning that you can receive a combined search and examination report (an initial opinion on the patentability of your invention) within a few months. Having an initial view on the potential patentability of your invention is very useful when considering whether to commit to the additional expense of the later stages in the application procedure, such as continuing with the application though examination, and/or filing in other countries.
The UK Patent Office offers a relatively low-cost, high-quality service, that is also largely patentee friendly. Since, preparing a first patent application usually involves a considerable investment of time and money, first-filing at the UK Patent Office is a good way of capturing your initial investment and getting an application on file with minimal further cost.
The European Patent Office
Another option is to first file a patent application at the European Patent Office instead of at the UK Patent Office. The protection offered by the EPO also extends to the UK, since the UK is part of the European Patent Organisation.
The European Patent Office application also offers combined search and examination report that issues within a few months of filing, but the official fees are considerably higher, and additional renewal fees need to be paid each year (starting two years from the filing date) to keep the pending European application in force.
A European Patent has the potential to cover a much larger geographical area than the UK, but the examination procedure is more rigorous and cost intensive.
The United States Patent Office
Another option is first-filing an application at the United States Patent Office. The USPTO offers two different types of application, a provisional patent application and a regular patent application (called a Utility Patent application).
A provisional application is a short-lived application that automatically lapses after 12 months, and which needs to be followed up by filing a US Utility patent application if protection is to continue. A provisional patent application is not searched or examined and so is not as useful as other applications for understanding the patentability of the invention before filing in other countries.
Provisional patent applications allow the applicant to revisit the application and expand the disclosure at minimal cost before the first year expires. Consequently, fees and procedural requirements are simpler. The process at the US Patent Office for handling such applications and determining the relevant dates of disclosure of an invention (when more than one provisional application is involved) reflects this and is more generous than other patent offices where there is a higher importance that documents are as complete as possible at the very first date of filing.
Using a provisional patent application as a first filing before following up with overseas applications offers little advantage over first filing in the United Kingdom – further, the lack of a combined search and examination report such as that provided by the UK Patent Office, and the fact that the provisional application lapses after 12 months may be seen as drawbacks.
First-filing a regular or Utility patent application at the United States Patent Office is another option. This may be a good strategy if you need patent protection in the United States as quickly as possible, and do not wish to delay for up to a year (or even 30 months) by first-filing elsewhere. It may also be preferable for some particular technical fields or areas where the US PTO is more generous in its approach to patentable subject matter. Otherwise, it offers little advantage over filing elsewhere and selecting the United States for a national patent filing later in the process of internationalising your application.
The First Year and Claiming Priority
Filing a patent application at any patent office, means that the applicant for the patent then has a year (calculated from the initial filing date) to file at other patent offices around the world and benefit from the initial filing date. The initial application can be filed anywhere, but within a year, an applicant will need to decide which other countries are of interest.
The process of internationalising the application around the world incurs further attorney and official patent offices fees and decision points are usefully spread over a number of years to help manage costs, which can balloon depending on the number of applications filed.
Many applicants choose to delay the choice of specific countries of interest by another 18 months after the first year by filing an International Patent Application. International Patent applications never become International Patents but do provide a fixed period of time (up to 30 months from the initial filing date, and 31 months in a few countries) in which to decide on overseas protection and file patent applications at other national patent offices.
It is possible to first-file your application as an international application, but this is a higher price point that a first-filed UK application and must necessarily be converted into one or more national applications for patent grant to be possible.
This article is for general information only. Its content is not a statement of the law on any subject and does not constitute advice. Please contact Reddie & Grose LLP for advice before taking any action in reliance on it.
