Q: Can the products that are patented & sold in US,UK be sold in other countries? What are the legal things to consider ?
Can similar products be manufactured and sold in other countries , will there be any legal lawsuits against the local company who is manufacturing?
Can the local company apply for patent on same Idea in their local country ?
A:
The idea behind patent law is that a patent provides the patent owner certain rights within the borders of the country.
So if there are two patents for a product, one in the US and one in the UK, and nowhere else, then you are not able to make, use, sell, offer for sale, etc., within the US and the UK, but it is OK elsewhere.
You have to be careful, though. You have to make sure that ALL of the activities are taken place outside of US and UK.
And you also have to be careful of other patents in the other countries.
Regarding your last question: you cannot get a patent on the same product that someone else patented in a different country. For at least two reasons: (1) you did not invent the product, so you should not have any rights to it, and (2) you can’t patent something that is already known. But you can get patents on improvements to the product (provided that the improvements are not obvious) in any country, including the US and the UK.
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