CORBEL – Features of Intellectual Property
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A patent can be applied for to cover a new composition, product or process. It must be new (not
previously known in the public domain), not obvious to skilled persons, and useful in the sense
of solving some practical problem or generating something valuable to society.
Patent applications need to be made with adherence to certain logical structures (claims,
delineating the scope of what rights can be claimed, description and examples). Drafting patent
applications is almost inevitably work for patent attorneys specialized in the field. Great care
must be taken to ensure that the description and structure of the patent application is correct and
defensible, that the scope of claims is appropriate, and that the inventors are correctly listed as
well as the legal entity applying for patent protection.
Patent applications only proceed to become granted patents after they have survived
examination by the national patent offices. This generally takes several years and can involve
considerable expense. A granted patent confers in principle a commercial monopoly (but be
aware that third party patent rights may also be involved in exploitation, see below). The
monopoly lasts for 20 years from the date when the patent application was first filed in the first
country or region chosen.
The decision in which countries/regions to apply for patent coverage can be delayed up to 30
months from the date of first filing, but no longer. This time period allows more information to be
gathered as to the value of the patent, taking account of the expense of filing, examination
(separately in different countries or regions!) and maintenance during the life.
It is often said that patents are necessary to secure “freedom to operate”, but to practice the
invention may be dependent on third party patent rights in addition. This can arise, for example,
if the patent applied for is an improvement of a basic concept or idea patented earlier by another
party. The holder of the original basic patent right may then blocks exploitation of the
improvement or require compensation via a royalty or other form. The holder of the improvement
patent may similarly exercise its rights if the owner of the basic patent would wish to apply the
improvement.
Patent rights can be transacted (licences granted) and are thus an important feature of
technology transfer arrangements. The existence of valid patents is often essential for start-up
companies, being an aspect of value for investors and for offering licences to industry partners.
Patent rights also provide a basis for valuation of developments and for providing rewards to
inventors.
The patent literature is vast but fortunately good, searchable data bases exist which anyone can
use with only a little instruction. The European Patent Office ESPACENET data base
is an
excellent search engine for patents and published patent applications worldwide.
Some Perceptions and Issues with Patents
Filing patents takes too much time and delays publication unacceptably.
Scientists often make this claim. Some avoid patenting altogether for this reason. In practice,
a patent filing can usually be submitted within days or weeks of the first conception of an
invention. (The US patent office (USPTO) even has an online submission procedure available
http://www.epo.org/searching-for-patents/technical/espacenet.html#tab1