Patent, design registration????

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VPA-NI

VPA-NI

Free Member
Feb 27, 2011
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  • #1
    I have a product idea and am currently working on a prototype. I am trying to understand the whole patent, design registration thing and am slightly confused by it all.

    Have any of you used companies such as Innovate who say they help with the whole process or have any of you tried doing it all yourselves? What about the cost of it all? Have any of you used a Patent Attorney? Have you gone into marketing the product yourself or have you decided to licence the product?

    What were the pitfalls? What would you do differently?:rolleyes:
     
    R

    red-source

    Free Member
    May 16, 2009
    532
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  • #8
    I could also pass on some information about innovate. Second hand info so I wont detail it here, but needless to say my advise is to consider other options.

    My main question for anybody thinking about patenting anything, is can you afford the legal fees to take a multi million pound company through court if they indeed decided to infringe your patent :) Make sure you know what your patent is going to do for you and consider if it is truly worth it.

    Also, check out the forum search function, as I know there are some patent experts lurking around.
     
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    brightidea

    Free Member
    May 12, 2011
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  • #9
    red-source said:
    is can you afford the legal fees to take a multi million pound company through court if they indeed decided to infringe your patent.
    Click to expand...

    My Patent attorney seemed a little dismayed when I mentioned Innovate and others as a way forward for my project.

    The cost of a Patent isn't ridiculously expensive, not that I'm any expert. My total bill for filing in the UK is about £4K. inc searches etc. However, for that you get a Professional who understands the terminology required to exploit as much of the IP as possible.

    Red source; I hadn't thought about the infringement court costs, but what options are there? Surely it's foolhardy to expose your idea / prototype without protection. NDA's??? Not too sure.
     
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    red-source

    Free Member
    May 16, 2009
    532
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  • #10
    hello brightidea, patent`s are important ONLY if you truly believe you will win a court case, and therfor get the majority of your legal costs payed. I have recently experience a court battle through infringement ( luckily for a seperate company to my own ) and I have to say I was gobsmacked at how the legal fees just went up, and up, and up and..... with really no inclination of when it would stop. The final amounts were very scary! The only reason it went so far, is that both companies involved were fairly cash rich and could justify the time of the legal battles.

    Its a personal thing I guess, but from My experience I would in future choose very carefully which products I would look to protect. If you dont protect with these patents and somebody does come along to steal your thunder, hopefully by that time you have enjoyed a few successful years and have since developed "version 2".

    Only my two pennies worth mate, just something to think about and discuss with other people. Remember, patent lawyers will always tell you its worth patenting, because that`s how they earn thier keep ! :)
     
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    N

    Nick Dougan

  • #11
    Hi VPA-NI

    I think that it's good that you are looking at this now - give yourself time to check out the options.

    IP Commecialisation companies may or may not give advice that will help you find a partner to commercialise your invention/innovation. But make sure you understand what level of IP protection they have obtained. A client's client thought that he had a patent - what he had, in fact, was a patent pending, and on the basis of poorly drafted patent claims in the first place.

    If you're a private inventor with relatively limited resources you also need to be careful not to allow a patent attorney to have you spend your whole budget protecting your IPR while leaving no resources for commercialisation. You will almost certainly have to strike a balance - get just enough IP rights to get started. If you time things right and do the right type of IP filing you may leave yourself with the option to extend your IP protection later when your developments have started to bring money in.

    There's a great case study on this sort of thing. See http://www.bb-ip.com/index.php/cost-effective-ipr-edge-safe/ I hope that helps.

    Nick
     
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