Patent

[williamson_liz]

Dear All

I am looking at getting an item patent. I am totally new to this and would like some advice on how I go about doing it and a rough idea about cost.

Thanks

Liz

 

[Robert Pearce]

Have you looked at the guidance on the Intellectual Property Office's website?

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/patent.htm

 

[jules12345]

Having just finished my IP elective my advice is to go and see a patent attorney.

Regards
Jules

 

[MrMichael]

You'll be looking at roughly £4-5,000 for upper-end of costs for a UK patent. Patents protect functional processes and products. Cheaper methods involve registering your design but this protects the appearance alone.

You should start by assessing whether there are any existing products which are similar to your own. I suggest using http://worldwide.espacenet.com/?locale=en_EP with some keywords that describe your product.

You can employ professional search agents which can perform this function. This would allow you to draft your patent to avoid conflict with existing products.

Alternatively the UK IPO will conduct a search as part of the application. The downside is that you may need to amend your claims following the search results.

Assuming you're on a budget, I would go with the latter option.

 

[Nick Dougan]

Mr Michael is about right for the cost of registering a UK Patent - my client Brookes Batchellor (www.bb-ip.com) tends to say £3,000 - £5,000, and if you hunt around you'll probably find some sole practitioners who'd try to serve you for less. Patenting isn't inexpensive for some very valid reasons - see e.g. http://www.bb-ip.com/index.php/patent-cost/.

Registering designs should and patents are not interchangeable, however. If you have invented something, a patent is the appropriate protection. If you've designed something where the appearance is key, then that's when a registred design comes in. http://www.bb-ip.com/index.php/design-knowledge/

Good luck! I'm working woth a forst time inventor to market a newly patented product at the moment, and it's an exciting stage of company development!

Nick
www.actioncoach.com/nickdougan

 

[Galmac618]

Patenting things can get very expensive, especially if you want to extend the cover of you patent to more than one territory. I think the fee of £3000-£5000 is about right initially, the patent attorney we use charges £300 per hour so the above should cover the drafting and filing of the patent. However, the costs won't stop there. After 18 months your patent will publish and enter the PCT phase (patent cooperation treaty- means your patent is covered in all PCT territories). The IP office will conduct searches and send their initial report, this will require further IP lawyer input. After the PCT phase (I think at 30 months from filing), your patent enters national phase where you select which territories/countries you want protected and then each of those countries will conduct their own examinations. You will also have to pay fees per country you file in. As you can imagine this can all stack up pretty quickly. Its also recommended to first conduct a freedom to operate search. You don't want to spend all that money drafting and filing a patent only to find out that someone else already has something out there. You can do a lot of this searching yourself (use the wipo site, covers patents all around the world). Remember that what ever you've invented has to be novel and involve an inventive step (i.e. it can't be an obvious solution to someone skilled in that area), but a good IP lawyer can help you with this and often get around what initially looks like a damning examination report. Good luck with your project

 

[Dave.F]

Feel free to have a read of my methodology: http://www.swimglows.com/methodology/

Hope it helps

Dave.

 

[ssomanat]

After reading through different articles I understand that to patent your idea its good to have a proper design done first so that your idea can be put forward solidly. Is that true ?
But then the worry here is if you need to get your idea designed , you need to approach some firm which can do the design. So how do you make sure that the idea you disclose to them is protected and is not misused by them ?

Can they prevent you from filing the patent for the idea, since they have helped in designing it ?

Iam quite new to this..

 

[David Warrilow]

After reading through different articles I understand that to patent your idea its good to have a proper design done first so that your idea can be put forward solidly. Is that true ?
But then the worry here is if you need to get your idea designed , you need to approach some firm which can do the design. So how do you make sure that the idea you disclose to them is protected and is not misused by them ?

Can they prevent you from filing the patent for the idea, since they have helped in designing it ?

Iam quite new to this..

Hi,

I'm a patent attorney at London IP.

There's a lot of nonsense talked about needing a prototype or design drawings done in order to exploit your idea. Indeed, there are companies that suggest you spend £2k upwards for drawings etc. before looking into the IP protection side of matters.

If your main route to market is through licensing then designing a prototype or having drawings made is largely a waste of money.

If you can't protect the inventive concept with a patent (or in rare examples registered designs) then you have nothing to license.

I have had numerous clients who have, prior to contacting me, spent large amounts of money with a product design company, and when we have looked into whether their idea is protectable or not, have found out that it is not. They have wasted thousands of pounds.

Indeed, as they never wished to spend their time setting up a business, manufacturing and selling the product, their money was entirely wasted in a process that would only have been needed if their idea were protectable.

If you are intending on producing and selling a product yourself, then prototyping will at some stage be essential.

However, it seems that the majority of the clients of product design companies are lone inventors who never wish to make and sell a product themselves.

If a person who has thought of a product can't protect it they have nothing to license.

Further, there is no need to prototype a product if one embodiment of the product can be explained in a patent application such that a person reading the patent application can make the invention work without any inventive effort.

Thus, if you have an idea, and the prototyping process will not result in any change to the inventive concept then you are in a position to either work out if you have a patentable invention or to apply for a patent.

Do not be fooled by business advisors or product design companies that encourage you to spend large amounts of money on 'design drawings' or the like.

If you have any questions feel free to pm me.

David

 

[ssomanat]

Thanks David.

Was on holiday and hence this late reply.

 

[David Warrilow]

Thanks David.

Was on holiday and hence this late reply.

No problem. Thanks to all; the discussion inspired me to write an article on this for our website:

http://www.londonip.com/patent_or_prototype.html

Hope you enjoy.

David

 

[IP Consultant]

Liz, and others

I am a European patent attorney, and a typical patent route for a client of mine based in the UK, would be to file an initial UK patent application, followed by an International application up to 12 months later, then convert the International application into individual patent applications in each of the countries of interest by about 30 months after the initial UK application.

Regarding charges, we think of ourselves as competitive at £125/hour but patents are costly, particularly when you file overseas. Filing in the UK is typically about £1500 (it can be more if the technology is complicated or if "the invention" actually encompasses more than one patentable invention). Filing an international application is typically about £3000. Filing in each of the countries of interest is typically about £3000 on average per country.

Subsequent to filing, there are further charges for various procedural steps. By the end of the examination procedure, you might spend about £3000 for your UK application, £5000 on the international application, and on average about £5000 per country overseas.

Hope this helps. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Best wishes
Matthew