What this guide covers
The territoriality of intellectual property rights, the titles that exist in the United States, the deadlines you have to meet to keep your priority date, and the treaties that let you extend a filing made elsewhere.
What exists
Trademarks
Acquired through use in commerce and strengthened by federal registration with the USPTO. A European registration has no effect here.
Patents
The system is first-to-file: the filing date prevails over the invention date. Public disclosure before filing can compromise protection, under grace-period rules specific to the United States.
Extension treaties
The PCT for patents and the Madrid Protocol for trademarks let you extend an original filing, within strict deadlines counted from the first filing.
Trade secrets
Protected by federal statute provided reasonable confidentiality measures are actually implemented. The route chosen when a patent would expose too much.
What surprises people arriving from Europe or Quebec
The first to file prevails, whatever prior use exists elsewhere. A trademark used in Europe for fifteen years can face a later US filing, and the European holder finds themselves buying back their own name.
Where it gets complicated
Extension deadlines run from the first filing, not from arrival on the US market. A founder discovering the subject after two years of European activity has often let the most favorable window pass.
Official sources
What French Executive Network can do
Introduce you to the French-speaking business lawyers, accountants and tax advisers in the network who handle this subject, and to the members who have already been through it.