A patent is a process of transferring rights of possessions by a Sovereign authority to an inventor.
When an engineer, scientist, or innovator makes an innovation or invention, they are always afraid of their vision and idea being copied by someone else. If you want someone not to copy your vision or innovation you can file a ‘Patent’. Filing a Patent is a legal right of inventors offered by Govt. authorities which support inventors in keeping their inventions protected without the fear of being copied. A patent can be filed for about 20 years, afterwards, it expires which is a sufficient period for an invention to reach the targeted audience in the market thereafter, you’ll have to file another patent. Inventors in China apply for patents the most rather than any other country in the Globe.
Types of Patent
Patents are of three types.
- Design Patent – A design patent is filed when you design or create something new.
- Plant Patent – A plant patent is filed when you invent or produce a plant that is capable of reproduction.
- Utility Patent – A utility patent is filed when you invent a non-obvious process or design of any manufacturing article. It can also be filed when you have invented an improved version of an existing product.
A NOTE TO REMEMBER: A patent filed in the United States is not valid in any other Country. Similarly, a patent filed in another country will not be valid in the United States. You need to file a patent in every individual country depending upon your necessities and for that, you’ll have to apply for a PCT application.
Limitations of Patent
Below mentioned are some of the major things that cannot be patent or a person cannot file a Patent for that purpose.
- Ideas, process, or method.
- Scientific principle/formulation.
- Method of agriculture or horticulture.
- Dramatic, musical, or artistic work.
How to File a Patent?
- Prepare your File – You’ll need to prepare your file first including the description of the product, ideas, concept, formula, process, the structure of the product, pros of the invention and uses. Before filing a patent make sure to check whether the patent of your invention is already filed or not.
- Draft your application – There are two (02) types of applications a) Provisional Application and b) Complete specification. A Provisional Application is submitted, if your invention is under the development phase. By filing a provisional application, you’ll be granted time for twelve (12) months to complete your invention. During this tenure, your invention will remain protected. A complete specification application is submitted when your invention is completed. By filing a complete specification application, you’ll be granted a time of eighteen (18) months for publication of your invention after the examination. But you can submit another application to get your invention published within a month, soon after examination and approval.
- Examination Request – In this process, you file a request for examination of your innovation. During the examination process, your invention is checked whether it is unique, innovative, original, and beneficial or not. Further, you are also required to clear the misconceptions and objections against your creation.
Soon after completion of entire processes, a legal certificate known as a ‘Patent Certificate’ is issued to the inventor with validity up to twenty (20) years maximum.
Google Patents – Overview
Google Patents is another search engine by Google platform designed for Patents. Google Patents is easy to use and is a great way to start searching for claims. If you want to pursue claims you can take the assistance of intellectual property experts.
How Google Patents Works?
To use Google Patents,
1. Visit https://patents.google.com/
2. Search for any phrase or term you wish to see. For instance, let’s type ‘cautery and surgical tools’ in the google patents search bar. What you can see here is, it breaks the phrase into two components [cautery] and [surgical tool] for optimal search results.
3. In the search results pages, you can see the searched term broken into different components on the left-hand side, whereas, your search results on the right-hand side. You can further add synonyms to your search terms for more variations and specific results. Click on any of the ‘URL’ to know more.
4. Okay, so here we have opened one of the URLs from the search engine result pages and what we can see here is on the center-top we have the abstract of the product.
5. Below the abstract, we can see the images of the invention.
6. On the top right-hand corner, we have the patent number and the name of the person who had invented it.
7. Below the name of the inventor, we can see the name Assignee and Patent filing date.
8. You can see the claims right after the above sections.
9. On the center, besides claims, we have another section ‘Description’ where you can know about the product more.
10. At the bottom of the screen, you can see the patent Citation section.
11. On the top-right corner below the patent number, we have the option of ‘Download PDF’. By clicking on it, you’ll be able to download all the necessary information about the invention on your device.
That’s all for now!
Hope you find it insightful. Do share your reviews in the comments section below.
