Patents

Importance of Innovation in British Business

In the most recent years for which it provides statistics, the UK Patent Office granted 7,555 (2001) and 8,690 (2002) patents. At any given time almost 300,000 patents are in effect in the U.K., having been granted either by our own Patent Office, or by the European Patent Office in Munich. Approximately two-thirds of the patents in force in the U.K. today belong to British businesses or inventors.

Whether you are a private inventor working from your home, a full-time entrepreneur, or a principal in a large corporate entity developing or refining products or the means of producing them, protecting innovation is an integral part of modern enterprise.

Enhancing the value of your business with a patent

Patents protect ideas; that is to say, patents are intended to provide protection for the concept behind products or processes that have new technical or functional features. These features could be for example, a new construction of a product, how it works, or how the product is made.

How an invention or innovation qualifies for a patent

In order to be patentable, an invention must therefore be new; in other words, it must not have been made public before your patent application is filed. It must “involve an inventive step,” which means it cannot be obvious in the light of what is already known. It must be capable of industrial application.

How will Howard Lock Intellectual Property go about protecting my invention?

The first and critical step is the filing of the patent application. This establishes a priority date vis-à-vis any competing inventions. During the following 12 months, the client can decide what to do with the application; i.e. continue with it in the UK only or perhaps file overseas applications. Europe and USA are popular territories in which clients file patent applications.

Before a patent can be granted, each application has to undergo an examination to determine the scope of protection that will be provided by the patent. This typically takes from three to five years depending on the country. However, the invention is protected from the filing, or priority, date of the patent application. Even though a prospective patent owner cannot take action to enforce the patent until it is actually granted, the mere fact that the patent application exists should act as a deterrent to other companies wishing to use the same or similar invention.

After your patent is granted

When a patent is granted, the relevant Patent Office will publish the specification in the form as agreed with the Examiner, and at the same time the Patent Office will send to the patent proprietor a Certificate of Grant of the Patent.

Let Howard Lock help you protect your business innovations

To find out how Howard Lock Intellectual Property can assist you and your business to protect your business’s patentable invention, please phone 0114 218 0653 for a free initial consultation. Or feel free to contact us by e-mail for further information.

This website is intended to provide general information about intellectual property laws and is in no way a substitute for specific legal or technical advice that may apply to your particular circumstances or those of your business.