Question about patents

[MrAB]

Hi there,
I run a UK business and currently depend on a manufacturer to supply us with self-adhesive labels. Anyway, I'm considering having them manufactured myself, rather than using theirs so I've been on the European Patent Office platform and used their tool to search for a patent to make sure it's not patented and I've used the manufacturers name as my search filter. Nothing comes up in the search results, leading me to think there isn't a patent on it. Does anyone have any experience of using the EPO database and is it pretty reliable in terms of it's search results?

I've also searched the manufacturers website and the packaging from a recent order and there's no reference to any patent and nor does the item itself have any branding etc. Does anyone have any thoughts on whether or not labels can even be patented or would they be considered too generic?

I'd welcome any comments/thoughts.

Regards,
Andrew.

 

[WaveJumper]

What is so special about their self-adhesive label that makes you think they have a patent on it

 

[MRQ]

There is such a thing as design right... and perhaps some element of copyright; which is something that cannot be registered per se - but is still protectable. - Much would depend on what is 'special' about these labels.

 

[MrAB]

What is so special about their self-adhesive label that makes you think they have a patent on it

They aren't particularly special but there are 'cutouts' at the top so they can be folded over and used as badges at conferences. Paper label, on adhesive backing, not special at all but with the cutouts I wondered if that would make them patentable...

 

[MrAB]

They aren't particularly special but there are 'cutouts' at the top so they can be folded over and used as badges at conferences. Paper label, on adhesive backing, not special at all but with the cutouts I wondered if that would make them patentable...

thank you for coming back to me by the way.

 

[Gyumri]

They aren't particularly special but there are 'cutouts' at the top so they can be folded over and used as badges at conferences. Paper label, on adhesive backing, not special at all but with the cutouts I wondered if that would make them patentable...

It shows you're thinking but obviously whatever it is you have described has already been done and so cannot be patented unless there is some new and inventive step which is not obvious to a person skilled in the art of making labels.

 

[MRQ]

At a guess they're more likely to be protected by design right rather than patented... For some odd reason I seem to have 'lost ' the ability to post links (I could the other day!) - but if you got to gov-dot-uk forward slash search-registered-design ; that should get you to a useful starting point. - Perhaps it's not too difficult to 'design' something that does much the same job?

 

[Chris Ashdown]

What does your contract say with the original maker, this may state some limitations, but most likely not