If you have developed a product or started a new business, chances are you’ve considered getting your products patented.
This is, of course, a very good option to consider- patent protection has the potential to grant you exclusive access to using your new technology for up to 20 years, allowing inventors to recoup costs of R&D and encouraging them to make further innovations for the betterment of technologies and lifestyles.
However, before you can get a product patented, it is important to understand what a patent actually is.
A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign to an inventor or an assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for a disclosure of an invention.
This definition might seem to have some very complex elements at first glance, so let’s try to understand them one by one.
The first element refers to “a set of exclusive rights”. This means that if you have a patent you can exclude all others from practicing your invention. As a consequence, you will have a monopoly in the market for this invention.
The second element says “granted by the sovereign”. Sovereign refers to the government and that in turn means patents are a jurisdictional right. This type of right
varies from country from country.
In other words, if you want to have a patent protection in India you should apply for an Indian patent, while for patent protection in the USA you should apply for a US patent. Applications must be individually filed and prosecuted in each country.
The third element says “granted to an inventor or an assignee”. This means either the actual inventor of the patent or an organization on whose behalf (for example, whose R&D team) the patent is developed can apply for the patent.
The Fourth element specifies a “limited period of time”. In India and in most other countries the time period of validity of a patent is 20 years from the date of first application.
The fifth element is “granted in exchange for disclosure of your invention”. This means that if you want to get a patent on something, your application draft submitted to the patent office must contain minimum standards of disclosure.
Essentially, this disclosure contained in the application will give a person skilled in that specific field of technology the ability to replicate that invention.
If you have invented something and you successfully file for a patent, you will be granted set of exclusive rights for 20 years. During this time, you can stop others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or even importing your invention.
In other words, the advantages a successful patent application rants you are quite wide. So, if you feel your technology has some potential you should definitely go ahead and file your application.
Contact Us at info@thepalaw.com if you want to know more about what patents are and how you can file one for your invention!
