Obtaining a patent is one of the most important ways to protect intellectual property. To succeed and stay on top of the game, companies need to differentiate themselves from their competitors based on their intellectual property portfolios. A patent prevents your competitors from producing, using, distributing, or improving your innovation in a country or countries where the patent is granted. Let’s take a look at the world of patents and learn how to effectively secure your intellectual property with these simple tips.
1. Strike Before Your Competitor by Prioritizing
If you do not know what technological advances are patentable, you may be wasting your time protecting worthless intellectual property. Consequently, one of the most important steps in obtaining a patent is to identify all the technologies that can be patented in the very early stages of the development process. This will help prevent unauthorized disclosures. If a technology is discussed publicly, it loses the ability to obtain a patent. Identifying an idea that can be patented and protecting it at the right time will save you the time, money, and effort you put into its further development.
In addition, it leads to the recognition of your creativity and increases the likelihood of receiving material rewards for your invention. Therefore, it is important to identify all the possible versions and corrections that can be made to the technology that is under development. With the help of a technical expert and an experienced patent attorney, you can ensure that you cover all the possible adaptations and variations of the technology.
By doing this, you can protect and take full advantage of your technology. In addition, filing multiple patents for such variations ensures that your competitors will no longer be able to duplicate your technology with minor modifications and reap the benefits of your work with minimal effort.
2. Know What Can Be Patented
There are three key requirements that any idea must have to be registered: freshness, innovation, and industrial application. This innovation should introduce a new feature that is unknown in the body of current literature. It should be in such a way that a person with ordinary skills in the relevant field cannot easily infer it. However, at the time of filing a patent, the innovation must be described in sufficient detail so that anyone with ordinary skills in the same field can reproduce it. The patent must also have industrial use.
Another important aspect to consider is the subject matter that can be patented. In several countries, there are pre-established standards for subjects that can be patented. For example, some countries do not patent scientific theories, mathematical models, or computer programs.