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The importance of applying for a patent

 

Why apply for a patent?

 

 

On applying for a Patent, the benefits you will enjoy include:

 

  • valuable rights which are established immediately from the day you file your applicationpatents
  • the knowledge that you are in a superior position to benefit from your idea
  • the right to stop unauthorised use
  • others are prevented and discouraged from imitating your invention
  • the right to mark products and literature as "patented" or "patent pending" as a warning that they may not be copied
  • increased value of your business by ownership of a patent

 

The consequences of failure to patent

 

It is not at all unheard of for more than one person to independently come up with the same idea. So if your idea has merit and value and you do not patent it, then somebody else almost certainly will.

 

As a result you could miss out on valuable opportunities to benefit from your idea. For example, you could find yourself:

 

  • having to withdraw your products
  • losing your market advantage
  • losing your reputation because you have infringed somebody else's rights and having to pay damages as a result of that infringement
  • losing the benefit of the work put into developing your product

 

What is a patent?

 

You may be familiar with the term ‘patent', but would you be able to define it precisely?

 

A patent is a monopoly right granted to protect an invention which:

 

  • is novel; i.e. has not been published or used publicly anywhere in the world before
  • involves an "inventive step"; i.e. the advance or modification made is not in itself obvious in light of the what has been published or used publicly
  • is industrially applicable; i.e. can be used or manufactured in any kind of industry

 

A brief introduction to the patent process

 

When a patent application is filed it establishes a date from which the applicant may claim to have pending rights. The preparation and filing of the initial application is without doubt the most important step in the whole patenting process and it is during this period that the advice of a patent agent is most beneficial.

 

If after a period involving the search and examination against earlier publications, the invention is found to satisfy the above conditions a Patent will be granted.

 

 

More information

 

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