The development and enhancement of a product or a system costs time and funds, it is therefore essential to protect your assets, this can be done by inaugurating your creation in the form of a patent. Through a patent, the government gives the inventor the right to stop others from making, using or selling his invention from the day the patent is granted to a maximum of 20 years after the day on which the patent application has been filed.
Let us define furthermore a
patent, its qualifications and all its general aspects:
A patent is an exclusive right
to an invention, it protects the inventor against infringements by a third
parties. Generally, they are documents issued by
the federal government for a period of time. These documents grant the owner
the right to exclude others from making, selling and using the invention as it
has been described and claimed in the specification attached to the patent, a
good idea may be glaringly simple and does not have to be complex per se. It
may involve a machine, product, a production process or method, but it may also
be a new application of an existing product.
If an inventor does not get
the patent rights over his invention and introduces his product and/or process
based on his invention in the market, anyone can duplicate his work and exploit
it commercially. In order to gain exclusivity and therefore profit from his
invention, a patent is required to enjoy the exclusive rights over the
invention itself.
A patentability search or a patent
search is an examination of issued patents and published patent applications
for inventions that might be considered important “prior art” references when
applying for a patent. The prior art is anything in the public domain, patented
or not patented, that may determine whether an invention is novel or not. A
patent search allows you to reviews the drawings and text of patents and patent
applications to find inventions that may be similar to yours. The patent
classification system is the used search tool, in addition to keyword searching,
to find relevant patents. At Scutum IP Law Firm we use as well ingeniously the latent
semantic analysis (LSA) search technology to abstractly search your invention
meticulously.
The type of patent searches available are:
·
Novelty.
·
Collection.
·
Infringement also known as
non-infringement.
·
Right to use also known as freedom to
operate.
·
State of the art.
·
Validity also known as invalidity.
Patentability searches are
generally a little costly; while expensive, a good patent searches can prevent
the expenditure of money on patent applications for inventions that are not
patentable, conducting such a search can save your time and avoid you an unnecessary
invested charges into your invention by learning if it already exists or not.
After a detailed patent search, you will be able to determine if your patent
will infringe the rights of other patents or can invalidate a competing one. It
can also improve the quality of any patent application that is written on the
invention, a patent search can also assist with improving your idea by helping
you understand what else is on the market; when you research other available
patents, it able you to gauge the distinctiveness and practicality of your
invention and adjust it accordingly, if in need. The main importance of a
patent search is to have the peace of knowing; after conducting a patent
search, the clients feel a sense of amity from understanding if something like
their market changing invention exists already or not, and how similar or
different their design is, knowing the positive results on a patent search
means you are one step closer to patenting your idea and profiting from it. Nevertheless,
not all inventors are obligated to conduct a patentability search before filing
their patent application but yet it is preferable.
To grant a patent, your
invention must meet a number of legal requirements; per example, an invention
must not be publicly known anywhere in the world, not even through your own action,
before the filing date, taking in consideration the following important
aspects:
§ Confidentiality: An invention can no longer be
protected with a patent if it has been made public before the patent
application, you must keep your invention confidential until the time of
application. This also applies to discussions with potential investors;
therefore, our attorneys and teams automatically legally obliged to maintain
confidentiality and can draw up a non-disclosure agreement for you, so that you
are still able to talk to another party without jeopardizing the
confidentiality.
§ Novelty: The invention must not be
publicly known anywhere in the world, not even through your own action, before
the filing date.
§ Inventive
step: The
invention must not be obvious to a person skilled in art.
§ Industrial
applicability:
The invention must offer a result in the industrial domain; it must be a
product or production process with technical characteristics.
N.B. Some countries have different
requirements for a patent than another, kindly note that a patent application
is not bounded by one precise requirements.
An invention is protected by a
patent only in the countries in which the patent is applied for and granted,
while in countries where no patent is applied for, the invention can be freely
used. A worldwide patent does not exist; however, worldwide protection is
available by means of an international or PCT application a Patent Cooperation
Treaty, this protection can be arranged for a large number of countries
simultaneously.
A patent is granted for a
specific time period; for a maximum of 20 years in most of the countries,
depending on the settlement of the annual fees due to the authority in
question.
Protection ends when the
patent expires; the invention enters the public domain and is available for
commercial exploitation by third parties.
A patent can expire in the
following ways:
·
The patent has lived its full term, the
term specified by the patent act of the country in question, generally it is 20
years from the date of filing in most countries.
·
The patentee has failed to pay the
renewal fee, a patent once granted by the government has to be maintained by
paying annual renewal fee.
·
The validity of the patent has been
successfully challenged by an opponent by filing an opposition either with the
patent office or with the court.
Patent infringement happens if
someone commit a violation of a patent owner rights, unless permitted by the
patent owner himself, it is committed by making, using, offering to sell, or
selling something that contains every element of a patented claim or its
equivalent while the patent is in effect.
For infringement to occur, the prohibited act, it must be done in a
country that has granted you a patent or a violating product must be imported
into the country in question after being created abroad.
At Scutum IP Law Firm we realize that ideas and innovations are crucial to the future growth and success of any entity, which makes patents a vital assets for inventions that must be identified, nurtured and guarded for their absolute value to be realized. We pride ourselves to have an impressive track record working on IP cases generally and specifically patent cases. Our firm members have teamed up to put their ideas and experiences to produce our success thus far comes from our team keen, persistent and understanding which helps fostering an environment of collaboration, enjoyable and sovereignty.
As one of our main practices, we flatter ourselves to have a specialized patent team which able us to provide a successfully granted applications for local and international applicants.
Our team is a
combination between the top high-qualified translators whom works constantly
with our largely experienced patent attorneys to ensure patent translations are
accurate both technically and legally, through our unique team we provide the
following services:
§
Applicant/ Inventor Search.
§
Novelty search.
§
Equivalent search.
§
Keyword/ Subject Search.
§
Plant Variety Search.
§
Patent Drafting.
§
Patent Prosecution.
§
Patent Enforcement.
§
Patent Litigation.
§
Patent Monitoring.
For more information on how we can assist you with all your patent
matters please do not hesitate to contact us.
Kindly note
that, the above information is simplified and must not be taken as a definitive
statement of the law or practice.