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Patent Application Foreign Filing Licenses: Export Control for Sensitive Technologies Described in Patent Applications

By Karen Canaan
July 31, 2008

To protect national security, some countries require patent applicants to obtain a foreign filing license prior to filing a patent application abroad. The grant of a foreign filing license provides a governmental stamp of approval that the technology described in the patent application is available for export. Patent applications that are denied a foreign filing license are typically directed to sensitive technologies that defense agencies of a government have deemed important for military purposes and/or potentially detrimental to the safety of the country if exported; examples of such technologies are explosives and biological warfare agents. Some jurisdictions impose harsh penalties, such as jail time, for failure to obtain a foreign filing license prior to the exportation of sensitive information.

See Table 1, below, for a listing of countries with foreign filing license requirements.

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