priority claim

A priority claim is a legal way for an inventor to protect their innovation when filing a patent application in multiple countries. It allows them to file an initial application (the "priority application") in one country and then file in other countries within a certain time frame (usually 12 months), claiming the original filing date. This means the later applications are considered to have the same earliest date of invention, helping to establish who invented the idea first and protecting the inventor’s rights across different jurisdictions.