A patent is a legal declaration of ownership rights to an invention. It protects your idea or concept by declaring it as yours and proving its originality. Securing your intellectual assets is one of the most important steps in protecting your idea and getting a patent. Companies cannot keep up and compete with each other if they don’t have a strong and extensive portfolio of intellectual property (IP). They need to be the beacon in their industry, otherwise they’ll be wiped out.
If your competitor wants to produce, use, distribute, or import your invention outside the country or countries wherein patent rights were provided, they need your permission.
Patent Lifetime
A patent is granted for 20 years. After that time, the invention becomes public domain.
India has a law governing patent submissions and filings called the Patents Act. TThis Act indicates that the inventor, his assignee or one of his legal representatives must be in attendance at the Indian Patent Office or one of its branches.
If the applicant isn’t always an Indian citizen, they will need to record the following (wherein the application with the provider is located):.
Why should you protect your ideas with a patent?
Even though submitting a patent can be complicated and time-consuming, its significance cannot be expressed enough. With virtual advances, it’s possible there will be more time to go over the long process with ease.
- A patent protects your idea from anyone else making claims on it.
- If there’s been an infringement on your idea/invention you can ask legal authorities for help to avoid future lawsuits or other difficulties that could come up when trying to protect it.
- It makes it easier to find new customers and grow market share. In addition, your brand is strengthened, increasing your revenue and profits.
Let’s explore the arena of patents, to find a few steps that will help you protect your idea with a patent.
To protect your invention, there are specific requirements you need to meet. Here are 3 things you should consider before filing a patent:
- Novelty,
- Innovation, and
- Commercial applicability must be fulfilled for any concept to be patented.
The invention should be able to do something that has not ever been seen in other books. It should’t be so easy to figure out what it does. If you want to patent your idea or invention, it should be detailed enough that anyone can use it. It should also be useful and practical in the marketplace.
One of the most crucial steps when it comes to patent submission is to search for existing patents that might be relevant for your project.
The individual with the novel idea should ensure their innovation is original by checking for any earlier publications or patents. To do this, they should conduct a thorough patent search.
- Search on credible databases that contain the WIPO.
- Perform a patent search for the use of keywords, phrases, inventor names, etc. using Google’s patent search
- In addition, you might want to use these tools to find a professional patent and trademark lawyer.
- You can carry out research on a topic by looking at magazine articles
- One option is to watch for trends within a specific industry and/or at national and international conferences.
Tip 3: Keep all the necessary data and make a working prototype
Profiting from your idea? You need to report its existence of it as soon as possible. It’s possible your product is similar to that of other inventors and could be in the process of being copied. To show that you are working on something original, you should provide the chronology of your invention to prove this. As a result, your idea can be protected with a patent.
A dated journal, voice memos, sketches, photographs, and videos can all be valuable resources when coming up with ideas. Digital files with timestamps are especially helpful when it comes to patenting your invention.
In order to get a patent, it would be vital for you to provide a thorough description of the item and idea you’re searching for protection for. No better way could there be than to produce a prototype first and follow up with a clearly detailed explanation of how
Tip 4: Arrange for the signing of NDAs, confidentiality agreements, and Ip agreements.
Before going to a patent attorney and getting a patent for your idea, you should not go ahead and release any records about it. This is because public disclosure will trigger certain legal consequences with the help of which you may lose some rights.
To top it all off, you’ll need proof that you are the actual inventor. A notarized letter detailing how your invention originated would be an excellent start. Some companies have employees who are really good at coming up with new ideas. If any such employees work for you, you should sign contracts in advance to prevent them from misusing the innovation for something else.
Tip 5: Preparation for Provisional and International Patent Applications
You could use a provisional patent to protect your invention. Provisional patents can provide protection for one year, so you have time to compile the needed evidence and assets for a non-provisional patent application
If a product is patented and ‘patent-pending’, they can be classified as fully patented in the interim. This means that the rights of inventors are still protected while this invention is on patent, even if they have not yet been granted a fully-fledged patent.
One provision of many international trade agreements is to honor patents when trading. It may be worth considering getting a global patent to defend your design completely.
Conclusion
In relation to the previous section, it has been discussed that a concept may be patented if it can be transformed into an invention.. An inventor has to analyze the feasibility of his invention before filing a patent. If a product lacks the capability of general industrial application and performance, it won’t be approved. Contact us at docsplanner to know more.