Many New Zealand (NZ) and Australian (AU) businesses I talk to are frightened by the idea that international patent protection means filing in as many countries as possible. That assumption can lead to them shying away from patents entirely, or on the flipside, significant overspending on jurisdictions that add little commercial or competitive value.
With the right strategy, a handful of carefully chosen filings can disrupt international competitors just as effectively as a global portfolio and at a fraction of the cost.
Start thinking about where competitors operate rather than where the innovation will sell
This approach can change everything for a business.
Your patent's commercial value isn't just about protecting your sales but it's also about what it stops competitors from doing, and competitors can be hurt in more than one place: where they manufacture, where they sell, where they import, and where they launch new products. You don't need to cover all four, you just need to cover enough to make their position uncomfortable.
A business with patents in the United States (US), Germany, and China has meaningful leverage over almost any international competitor. This is not because those are necessarily the three biggest markets for that company’s product, but because between them they cover the world's largest consumer market, the manufacturing heartland of Europe, and the factory floor of the global economy. That's a chokepoint strategy, not a coverage strategy.
Sometimes one country is enough
I have a client in the extreme sports industry who makes innovative hardware. It’s the kind of product where technology moves fast, designs evolve quickly, and the window of commercial advantage is measured in years rather than decades. Their international filing strategy is to file in Germany only.
No US application. No PCT. No EPO. Just German utility models which are a form of registered intellectual property (IP) that most people outside the patent world have never heard of.
German utility models are fast and lean. Unlike a standard patent application, a utility model is registered without substantive examination, which means protection can be in place within months rather than years. For a company with short product cycles, that speed is critical because a protection right that arrives two years after the product has been superseded isn't much use to anyone.
The protection term also matches the business reality. German utility models last up to ten years, and for a product that will be iterated, improved, or replaced within that window, ten years is often more than enough. The client sees no point paying for twenty years of patent protection on something that will be commercially obsolete in five.
But the real strategic genius of their approach comes down to one simple fact: every major trade fair in their industry sector is held in Germany.
If you're a competitor wanting to launch a new product to the world and to get in front of distributors, retailers, media, and buyers then you go to Germany because there is no other stage that matters as much. And you cannot turn up to a German trade fair with a product that infringes a German utility model. German courts are pro-patents fast and enforcement-minded. The risk of an injunction, or being reported to trade fair organisers for IP infringement is real and immediate. Exhibitors have been forced to remove products from their stands mid-show at little cost to the patent owner.
So my client's utility model portfolio doesn't just protect a market, but it effectively protects the launchpad, controlling access to the industry's most important commercial arena at a fraction of what a global filing programme would cost.
The big three: why US, Europe, and China do most of the heavy lifting
For most technology sectors, these three jurisdictions punch well above their weight.
The US remains the world's most important patent jurisdiction for most tech and engineering sectors. The market is vast and US litigation is expensive and credible as a threat. I have found that Investors, particularly at Series A and beyond, look hard at US patent position, making it the default first priority for most of my clients.
Europe, accessed through a single European Patent Office application, can on grant be validated across more than 30 countries. You don't validate everywhere, you pick the key markets relevant to your competitor's footprint. Germany, France, the UK, and the Netherlands cover most of what matters commercially and from an enforcement standpoint, giving you one application selectively deployed across the continent.
China is consistently underestimated by NZ and AU startups, but if your competitor manufactures there or if China is a market they depend on, a Chinese patent is a powerful tool. Chinese courts have become increasingly willing to enforce patents, and the threat of an injunction disrupting a competitor's manufacturing operation is not something any business takes lightly.
Add Australia and Japan depending on your sector, and you have a portfolio covering the majority of global GDP and most competitive threats without filing in 40 countries.
Think about where your competitor's pain points are
The question to ask isn't "where do we sell?" but "how can we use IP to disrupt our competitor operations?”
One of my clients takes a deliberately counterintuitive approach. They don't file patents in the countries where copy product is manufactured. The traditional logic for doing so is sound enough: cut off the supply at the source and you may only ever need to sue a single manufacturer, keeping litigation costs contained. But this client has worked out that patents in their major end markets can do far more damage to the counterfeit value chain overall. By the time infringing product reaches a retailer in the US, a patent suit against that retailer sends shockwaves in all directions. The retailer turns on the distributor, the distributor turns on the importer, and the importer turns on the overseas manufacturer. Suddenly everyone in that chain is pointing fingers at everyone else. The trust that holds a counterfeit supply chain together, which is fragile at the best of times, collapses completely. You don't just stop one shipment but poison the entire relationship network that made it possible.
You're not trying to cover the globe. Instead think about trying to cover their globe.
What a lean but strategic portfolio might look like
A capital-efficient international patent filing strategy for a NZ or AU business typically follows a simple sequence: a provisional filed in NZ or Australia to establish a priority date at low cost; a PCT application within twelve months to preserve global options for another eighteen months; and then at the thirty-month mark, a selective entry into three to five jurisdictions based on where the competitive and commercial landscape has clarified. This is typically US, EPO validated in three or four key countries on grant, China, and Australia as the core, with Japan or South Korea added depending on sector. If you are a startup, then also think about where the next owner of your business may want patents. It’s often much more about anticipating what their business model might look like as it is about your current business model.
The honest truth about global patent protection
Complete global coverage is something even large multinationals don't achieve. There are almost 200 countries in the world and nobody files in all of them. NZ sits at around country 23 of countries where companies file patents. If budget extends to 23 countries, NZ may make it on the list. AU sits at around number 10, and the US, China, and Europe all in the top 5. What matters is filing deliberately, based on your business and your competitive environment, in the places where protection creates real leverage rather than just ticking boxes on a map.
A small, well-chosen portfolio beats a scattered, expensive one every time.
Working out which countries actually matter for your patent strategy? That's exactly the kind of question I help NZ and AU SME’s and startups think through - feel free to reach out for a complimentary chat.
