Priority year

The priority year is the twelve-month period that starts on the filing date of a first patent application and during which subsequent applications for the same invention — filed in other countries or through international systems — can claim the original filing date as their priority date. The right comes from the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and is fundamental to international patent strategy: it gives applicants time to decide where they actually want protection, to prepare translations, and to evaluate the commercial value of the invention — while their position against later prior art is already secured. For trademarks and industrial designs, the corresponding priority period under the same Convention is six months.