How is a patent granted?
A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by the government to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period. When you are granted a patent, it means that your invention cannot be legally copied by other people without permission from the owner. This blog post will answer some questions about how patents work and what they mean for inventors and companies looking to protect intellectual property.
What is a patent?
A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to an inventor for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention. It is usually granted in return for a period of exclusive control over the invention such that the inventor can obtain exclusivity and royalties from its commercial use. Once a patent has been issued it may be enforced by the patent holder (or their licensees) against infringers.
How to get a patent?
Patents are granted by national or regional patent offices. The procedures for granting patents are carried out in several steps, that may differ between countries. Firstly, an examination of the application is made to determine whether an invention appears to be a patentable subject matter. If priority is claimed the applicant must prove priority to a certain date prior to filing at any worldwide. After examination for patentability, and if the patent is granted, it will be subject to opposition procedures which may result in the patent being revoked.
Why should you get a patent?
A patent grants an inventor or their successors in title the right to prevent others from commercially exploiting the protected invention (which includes making, using, selling, and importing). A patent may be enforced against an alleged infringer through civil proceedings in the courts. To resolve disputes over whether an infringement has occurred there are three main types of jurisdiction: national courts, regional patent tribunals, and the European Patent Office.
When do you get a patent?
In principle, a patent would be granted after all national or regional validity requirements have been fulfilled, including examination of an application for compliance with formal requirements (for example unity of invention), search, and any necessary publication of the application. Formal requirements can be complex and may require an international patent search, which costs around 1,000 pounds at the European Patent Office.
How long does it take?
Depending on the national or regional office involved, it normally takes between 18 months to 6 years for patent applications to be examined. After the examination has been passed, there is usually a 3-month period to pay the official fees.
What is a patentable subject matter?
In order for an invention to be patented it must meet the requirements of patentability established by law, namely novelty, inventive step, and industrial applicability/utility. In some countries “useful models” or “new ornamental designs” are patentable.
What is novelty?
An invention is novel if it has not been anticipated by any previous disclosure (including publications such as patents and patent applications, the use of products, or the publication of working examples) anywhere in the world. An innovative step must be shown for an invention to be considered patentable; however, different countries apply different tests of inventive steps.
How is an invention assessed for patentability?
Even if the invention meets the criteria of novelty and inventive step it must also be considered “sufficiently disclosed” and “capable of industrial application”, i.e. useful. The requirements for disclosing an invention depend on each country’s national or regional law. It is also necessary for an invention to be able to work.
What are the main types of patents?
There are three main types of patents, each conferring different rights:
- Invention Patent — usually granted to the first inventor to file an application in a country. Ownership may vary depending on whether it was patented with or without an International Filing Date.
- Utility Model — a patent for a relatively simple invention that is intended to protect the functional features of a product or process, as opposed to protecting ornamental aspects. The protection conferred is usually only against commercial exploitation by third parties within the country in which it was granted and it cannot be enforced elsewhere.
- Industrial Design — a patent for a design of a new, original and ornamental feature of an article. In some countries, industrial designs are protected by either national law or international treaties. They confer protection over the whole world against commercial exploitation by third parties.
Does a patent exclude others from making the same product or process?
The owner of a patent is normally allowed to prevent others from commercializing, i.e. producing, selling, or importing, an invention identical to theirs without their authorization. However, this protection does not last indefinitely but only for the term of years laid down in the patent.
A patent is a form of intellectual property (IP) that gives its owner the exclusive right to exclude others from making, using, and selling an invention for a limited time in exchange for disclosing the invention to society by filling it with a government authority referred to as a patent office. A patent is granted in exchange for detailed public disclosure of an invention. Once a patent is granted in a given country, no person other than the patentee (or persons authorized by the patentee) can exploit an invention that claims priority from the patented application without infringing the patent.
