In the field of intellectual property, the concepts of priority and priority rights are essential for determining the precedence of an application for protection (patent, trademark, or design) and for ensuring that applicants retain the priority of an initial application when filing subsidiary applications abroad.
Priority
Priority refers to the principle whereby an application (patent, trademark, etc.) can benefit from the priority of a previous application for protection over other similar applications filed by third parties. This priority is linked to the first application filed for an invention, trademark or design and therefore allows for the exclusive right to be obtained, even if third parties file other similar applications after the filing date of the first application.
By claiming priority, the relevant date of the subsidiary applications becomes the filing date of the first earlier application, and these subsidiary applications obtain priority protection over similar third-party applications filed earlier.
Priority right
Priority rights are a legal mechanism that allows an applicant to benefit from a period of time to file corresponding applications in other countries after an initial filing. International conventions govern this right, notably the Paris Convention for the protection of intellectual property of 1883, which gives applicants a period of 12 months (for a patent) or 6 months (for a trademark or design) to apply for protection in other countries while retaining the priority of the first application.
This means that the applicant can claim the date of their filing in the first country as the relevant date for prior art/prior rights for all subsequent applications filed in other countries. This protects their invention, trademark or design against competing applications or disclosures made after their first application, provided that the right of priority is exercised within the prescribed time limits.
This mechanism makes the procedure for obtaining international protection easier by giving the applicant time to take these steps and avoid the loss of rights that could result from filing by a third party or disclosure after the initial filing.