months from the earlier of: the filing date in Canada (or priority date), or the filing date in another country if one requests it and satisfies certain conditions. The goal of public access is to give the public the ability to learn new technological information while protecting the right of the inventor to profit from the invention. First-to-file system In Canada, since 1 October 1989, generally speaking, patents are granted to the first inventor to file an application for an invention (that is, Canada has a "first-to-file" system), which may result in a "race to the patent office" by inventors of competing technologies In some cases, an application may effectively receive an earlier filing date, to improve the chances of an applicant winning the "race to the patent office". One year grace period In Canada, inventors have one year (i.e., a "grace period") after their first public disclosure of their invention in which to file a Canadian patent application. However, disclosing the invention to the public prior to filing a Canadian patent application will result in the loss of significant international patent rights. Additionally, as Canada has a modified "first to file" system, any delay in the filing of a Canadian patent application may result in "losing the race to the patent office". Requesting an earlier filing date To facilitate the international protection of inventions, by way of international treaties and the application of Canadian law, in some circumstances, priority may be requested in a subsequently filed patent application to an earlier filed foreign or domestic patent application by the same inventor for the same invention to provide an earlier "effective filing date" for the subsequently filed application. For example, if a subsequently filed patent application is filed in Canada within 12 months of the earliest date on which any corresponding previously regularly filed application was filed in Canada, or in any country belonging to the Paris Convention, or in any World Trade Organization (WTO) member country, the subsequently filed patent application can request priority back to the date of filing the earlier filed foreign or domestic patent application, effectively, for the purposes of determining patentability of the invention in the subsequently filed patent application, giving the subsequently filed patent application the filing date of the earlier filed foreign or domestic patent application to the extent that the claimed subject matter of the subsequently filed patent application overlaps with the