Patents

A patent lawyer is a legal expert who helps individuals and companies protect their inventions. They advise on patentability, draft and file patent applications and handle disputes over patent rights. In the UK they may also be chartered patent attorneys with both legal and technical expertise.

Patents are a valuable intellectual property right and protect the invention regardless of how it looks and is embodied. A registered design, in comparison, protects the overall appearance of a product whilst copyright protects the form of the work.

Typically, a patent will provide the owner with a monopoly right for a limited time (usually 20 years). This can be relied upon to prevent a third party from operating within the scope of the patent claims.

Infringement of a patent will be established where a third party makes, disposes of or offers to dispose of, uses or imports a patented product (or a product obtained by way of a patented process), or keeps it. It’s worth noting that:

• In relation to a process, there is infringement if a third party uses the process or offers it for use when they know or it is obvious to a reasonable person that use without consent would be an infringement.
• In relation to a product, knowledge is not required.
• A patent is also infringed if a third party supplies or offers to a third party an essential element of the invention to put it into effect.

Patents usually take a few years to be granted and are of a significant expense.

As a result of their wide rights, patents are rigorously examined to ensure they are valid against any prior art (i.e. evidence that the invention is known in the marketplace). It is important that you do not disclose your invention to any third party other than your legal advisor (who is bound by legal privilege) before you file the patent unless there is a suitable non-disclosure agreement in place. Otherwise, your patent will be invalid if the disclosure made by you enables a third party to put the invention into effect.

To be a patentable invention you will need, to show that it:

1. is new
2. involves an inventive step
3. is not an obvious change to something that already exists
4. has industrial application

Certain inventions are excluded – such as discoveries, scientific theories, mathematical methods, schemes or methods of doing business, computer programs and presentations of information. However, it may be possible to secure a patent for a computer program if it improves the way of doing something.

As patents are national territorial rights, you will need to consider which countries you wish to secure rights within as it would not be economical or efficient to cover every country in the world. You can either secure the rights separately in each country of interest or file an international patent designating certain countries, where the rights will ultimately become national rights in the designated country. Enforcement of patent rights must be carried out on a country-by-country basis.

Our partner patent attorneys will guide you through this process and ensure that you adopt a sensible and cost-effective program to meet your commercial needs.

If you wish to explore with us if your invention can be patented, do get in touch. We can offer you a short and free consultation with one of the patent attorneys we partner with for such work. This would give you a good steer on whether or not to pursue a patent application.

In most jurisdictions including the UK and Europe patents can protect new, inventive and industrially applicable inventions. These include:

• Products such as machines, tools or devices
• Processes like methods of manufacturing or chemical processes
• Uses of known products if the use is new and inventive
• Software related inventions if they provide a technical solution to a technical problem

In the UK and Europe the following can’t be patented:

• Scientific discoveries or mathematical methods
• Aesthetic creations like art or literature (these may be protected by copyright)
• Schemes, rules or methods for doing business, playing games or performing mental acts
• Computer programs as such, without a technical effect
• Methods of medical treatment or diagnosis on the human