In summary, a patent may be an effective tool for protecting your company. If you own a patent for something you invented, you have the exclusive right to commercialize it; you can prevent anyone from making, using, or selling it without your permission; and you can sue those who do so.
What is the definition of a patent?
A patent is a legally enforceable property that offers the patent holder exclusive rights to use and commercialize an invention for the duration of the patent. The patent owner must disclose to the public how the invention works in return for this exclusive right. Patents are granted and applied for on a country-by-country basis. Treaties between nations, on the other hand, allow for group applications in various countries.
Need for an inventive step
A standard patent will be granted if the subject of the invention was created utilizing an inventive step and may be employed in a commercial environment. An inventive step shows that the invention is not obvious to someone with expertise and experience in the invention’s technological field.
A patent application must be able to demonstrate that the invention differs from current technology in some manner and that the difference is due to a novel concept that is distinct from the combination of previously published information or background information.
What are the objects that can be patented?
Patents can cover a wide variety of business operations. They can be given for any novel, original, and valuable business innovation (the “base criteria”). All business operations can be linked to commercial inventions. Software, hardware, computer circuits, and other computer-related inventions, business methods, biological inventions, microorganisms, and other biological elements are all subject to special regulations.
For instance, a “business method” that directly uses a physical form or equipment to produce a “useful product” may be subject to a patent application. To be patentable, a business method must meet the basic requirements and demonstrate that the application of technology to a business method (e.g., online business, financials, reporting, or analysis) is directly involved in the creation of the “useful product” in a significant, not just incidental manner.
What things are excluded from patent protection?
When opposed to things that are already known, patents will not be issued if the topic of the patent application is not original or novel. Even if the inventor can demonstrate that he or she had no knowledge or awareness of the prior work, a patent application will not be granted if the subject of the invention was published or disclosed outside of the host country.
A patent application will also be refused if the proposed invention is not novel and was publicly known prior to the filing of the patent application. This disclosure might be made through marketing, a commercial presentation, or a non-confidential communication description.
If a competitor can prove that the applicant commercialized or disclosed the invention in public before filing the patent application, the patent application may be rejected. If a patent application is filed just to express a theory or idea without a practical adaptation, it will be rejected.
Human beings or the biological process that produces them, creative works, mathematical models, plans, schemes, or other purely mental processes are not eligible for patent protection. Patent applications for military-related inventions are subject to additional restrictions.
The advantages of owning a patent
Patents may be effective tools for establishing and protecting enterprises. Building a patent portfolio has a number of advantages for patent owners, including but not limited to:
- an exclusive right to stop others from manufacturing, using, and/or selling the invention described in the patent in the host country without permission; and
- an exclusive right to commercialize the patent, including the ability to license third parties to manufacture the patented invention on agreed terms and to take legal action against people who are using the patented invention without permission.
What if you don’t have access to patent protection?
If an invention that is the subject of a patent application is not eligible for patent protection for whatever reason, the application nevertheless retains legal protection for the innovation’s secret nature. It will need careful preparation to ensure that the idea can be commercialized while yet being “secret” or “proprietary” to the inventor’s company.
Other legal protections, like as design registration or copyright, may be available depending on how the invention is expressed.
You can find the list of international IP Firms here.