Introduction
Really, inventions are something new, and since you can now keep your intellectual property safe and invoke your right upon your idea, you would have already filed for a patent beforehand. Not all inventions, however, are patentable. In order for you to know if your invention can be patented or not, you should be acquainted with what to patent in an invention and how. We will tell you the answers of the most important questions of whether it is possible or not, hardest to inventors, and how the patents must be explained.
What is a Patent?
Having explained what a patent is, now let us explain patentability definition. Patent is intellectual property right of inventor granted by government. Patent is a right of monopoly and no other person is allowed to make, use, sell, or dispose for sale the granted patent of invention for any amount of time which normally is 20 years from filing date.
Patents are created in a way that they help such inventors in a way that they are able to profit from their invention even after technological development. It is not any patent but under certain special circumstances it becomes necessary to follow.
Reveal the Patentability Conditions
So you would find out whether your invention would become patentable or not, you have to go through the following conditions:
Novelty (Newness):
Novelty is the most basic and most rudimentary patentability. The invention should not merely be in some prior stage of point of public use, or in publicly known used, or in prior art patent.
If your invention has already been done in terms of publication in science magazines, exhibition form, or published throughout the entire globe with the use of internet as the medium, then your invention already can be presumed to already have done the newer no more and be non-patentable anymore.
For ascertaining novelty of the invention, prior art search and prior patents will be undertaken.
The best possible way to explain the definition of the patent search was to ask if ever there was any prior invention of yours or otherwise.
Non-Obviousness (Inventive Step)
The invention will, being as new as it is, be obviously patentable to a man of the art field. I.e., the invention must not be such one which a man of common knowledge of the art or trade will do.
For instance, you have two general machines, combine them in a first combination, and form a new machine, and you will forfeit your patent on the doctrine of obviousness. Your step of invention must put significant weight on the fact that the invention is doing something new and unexpected to the art.
Usefulness (Utility)
A product of an invention should be useful and physical in nature so that it can be eligible to be patented. It should be something to be utilized for the purpose of bringing a physical value to the physical world. Utility is formed in such a way that ideas, conceptions, and imagination works cannot be eligible to be patented.
For example, to-be-machine of being in a position to refuel to any degree is not falsifiable because it is against physics laws and therefore never a possibility.
Patentable Subject Matter
Nothing innovation on and patenting can be patented. It has to be something patentable according to the law of patents: manufactures, machines, processes, or composition of matter. Mathematical algorithms, natural phenomena, laws of nature, and abstractions are non-patentable.
A new computer program or business process of a new process may be challenged on grounds of novelty and subject to jurisdiction of eligibility.
How to Know Whether Your Invention Is Patentable
1. Write down Your Invention
Because one of the things that you must be capable of in order to patent your invention is to be capable of writing it down, writing it out, drawing it out, charting it, re-creating how your invention operates. It is also best if you place it in an inventing notebook where you make a date of invention entry which will come in handy when you are required to present a declaration of priority.
2. Patent Search
Patent search will inform you whether and when your invention has or hasn’t been patented in someone else’s name. Begin with an open search in web databases such as:
– United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Database (for US patents)
– European Patent Office (EPO) Database
– World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Database
It will inform you when and whether patents on your good or idea patents have been awarded.
While you yourself can very well do it yourself in a proper search for patents, you’d much rather have the individual who is employed by a patent professional society or law firm to do the longer and higher quality work.
3. Search Patentability Requirements
Search requirements of novelty, non-obviousness, utility, and subject matter patentable. The question that you ask yourself is:
– Is your invention new or novel in comparison with what already exists?
– Will the ordinary skill in the art find your invention obvious or not?
– Is your invention definite and useful?
– Is your invention patentable subject matter?
4. Sit down with a Patent Lawyer
It will usually be impossible to proceed with the process of obtaining a patent, and indeed, it will be advisable to sit down and discuss matters with a patent agent or attorney. Your patent attorney will inform you:
– Conduct a proper patent search.
– Prepare a legally valid patent application.
– Decide whether your invention is to be patented or not.
Your legal practitioner will also represent you and facilitate your maximum protection with your patent application.
5. Filing Patent Application
If you qualify to obtain a patent, you are able to file a patent in your patent office. Depending on your place of residence, you might file an:
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– Provisional Patent Application (PPA): Date of filing on when you first brought out your invention. Not patent claims but field testing your invention in the market for twelve months.
– Non-Provisional Patent Application (NPA): Formal filing with fully described and claimed your invention. Begin non-formal examining procedure.
Respond to Office Actions
After your application is filed, a patent examiner will review it. In some cases, the examiner may issue an Office Action, which is a document pointing out issues with your application, such as objections to the claims or requests for more information. You’ll need to respond to these actions, often with the help of your attorney, to address any concerns and move the process forward.
Awaits Approval or Rejection
Your patent office will contact you as soon as they receive your patent application. They will grant you a patent for your invention if your application is approved. You may appeal against rejection or re-file on your application when it is rejected and get examiner’s comments.
Challenges in Patenting
1. Expenditure
Grant fee preparation and grant fee payment at patent application filing is extremely expensive as attorney fee, search fee, and filing fee skyrocket. Patent alive maintenance fee at grant.
2. Time
Patenting entails time-consuming decision-making which will take years or months to bear fruit. It discourages waiting inventors and seeing their idea getting converted into commercial commodity.
3. Patent Infringement.
After you receive a patent, it becomes difficult to safeguard your rights in the patent. If the third party infringes on your patent, then legal action is the only option to retrieve your intellectual property.
4. International Protection.
Your patent in the United Kingdom protects you everywhere else in this world but not in the United Kingdom. If you wish to be protected worldwide, then you would have to be registered where you want to be protected and that takes time and money.
Conclusion
Whether or not your invention can be patented, it is great to have intellectual property wrapped up in a bow. A look at the world of patentability—novelty, non-obviousness, utility, and patentable subject matter—you can walk through possibilities of just how tangible your invention could be in the world of patent protection.
Patent searching, bringing your invention into being, and hiring the services of a patent attorney is money well invested to make you strong enough to survive the patenting process through the maze.
Once money and time are invested on it, the worth of a patent can’t be duplicated, and it grants you exclusive rights to your invention and the upper hand over the others.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
1.) How long does it take to get a patent?
It will be case-by-case and jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction depending on what kind of invention. It would be 1 to 3 years from the time of filing that they would contact you.
2.) Can a business concept or computer program idea be patented?
Computer programs and business processes are generally patentable subject to the type of invention. It will also need to satisfy the usual requirement of novelty, non-obviousness, and utility.
3.) How much will a patent cost me?
It is going to take some hundreds and thousands of dollars depending on work and invention. Provisional is less expensive because it’s a full application, and non-provisional is expensive.
4.) Is it possible for me to patent an improvement over an invention that has already been made?
Yes, a more valuable patented invention can be developed in case they are novel, nonobvious and useful. In the meantime, improvement patent is also known as “patent for an improvement” and it’s used in an attempt to prepare application for a patent of an improvement or addition of a patented invention.
5.) Do I need to employ the services of an attorney if I want a patent?
Undefined No, you don’t, but you’d better. The patent attorney will guide you through the hair-on-your-head step, bail you out when you bet against the government and end up in jail, and write your defense of necessity for you so you can enter your plea.