You've already heard me discussing that inventions must be new and inventive for them to receive a patent. I'll now run through the steps involved in obtaining a patent in the UK, including some of the pitfalls and challenges. This will give you an idea of the process, the complexity, but also the importance of protecting the intellectual property of your invention. This specialization gives you opportunities to also explore what the processes are in your country, asking is it different where you are. If so, in what way? Hold these thoughts for now though. Patents are monopoly rights allowing you to commercialize your invention for a maximum of 20 years. Although you can patent products, processes, and methods, you cannot patent ideas, theories, laws of nature, animal or plant varieties. Patents protect all the technical aspects of an invention. So remember, when applying for a patent, you will need to provide a complete description of the invention including legal statements that set out the technical features. You'll also need to provide a statement of inventorship. This is so that the Intellectual Property Office knows who is the inventor and why you have the right to apply for a patent. Before anything however, it's necessary to search the patent library to check if a similar patent to your invention already exists. In the UK, this is possible through the IPO patent information and documents service. Worldwide patents can be searched for using Espacenet. It's advisable to work with a patent attorney. Obtaining a patent without the help of an attorney is far less likely than for those that do have one. This is a very complex process and, involving a lawyer who specializes in the subject matter even if they're not familiar with your invention is a really important first step. Remember that patenting is very expensive, in the UK it can cost around £4,000 to obtain a patent. It may take as long as five years to receive it too depending on the process that you choose to take, the number of countries you want to file the patent in, and the complexity of the invention. Once the patent search has been completed, you can apply for a substantive examination to check whether your invention is new and inventive enough, whether your description and claims match and a good enough to patent. After you've applied, you can mark your invention as patent pending. As I discussed before, Intellectual Property is territorial and protects an invention only in the countries that the patent covers. If you want to file a patent in more than one country, then a single application can be filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, which provides protection in more than a 140 countries. It can be applied for with the European Patent Office for protection in more than 30 countries, and your other option is to apply separately to the Patent Office of each country in which you want to patent. Patents are actually very useful sources of information. It's estimated that 80 percent of the information provided in a patent is not available elsewhere. Luckily, most patent information that is in the public domain is available on the internet through national and international patent office websites. Remember, a patent might not be the best or only way to protect your invention. It's possible to use other types of protection such as design rights, which protect the way that your product looks and feels rather than how it works. Design rights last 25 years and can be renewed every five years, but it can also be protected through trademarks which protect the brand that you use to surround and market your invention. The logo TM can be used by anyone indefinitely and applies to product names and logos, and the logo R means a registered trademark and gives further legal protections. So there you go. I've talked about some important things to consider when patenting an invention. Now, I'd really like you to apply this information to your own context. Is it the same in your country? Are you familiar with the processes there? When you next look at a healthcare innovation, think about what aspects of it have been patented or protected through other means.
