Patenting Your Innovation: The Process (2)

Moving to the next criteria, the question is whether the concept is original, not obvious to someone skilled in the art. The patent examiner is looking to see if this invention is trivial, would it appear to be obvious to anyone with an average level of training in the field or professional knowledge. This fictional person is meant to be representative of someone that should they be presented with your innovation, would consider it to be unique, original. In addition, in U. Best mode is the practical method or commercial application of making or practicing the invention.

This requirement is to ensure the inventor is not holding back from explaining to the public or one skilled in the art how to make or practice the invention. Governments issue patents as a trade-off to inventors. Innovations then are much more than improvements to existing technologies. They are truly novel, unique, and non-obvious for patenting purposes.

Patentable ideas must be more than an idea, they must be well thought out so that the protected information in the patent is useful to others at the conclusion of the patent protection period. In fact, patents represent one of the important ways that man teaches others their unique solutions to problem-solving. Marketing technologies to companies potentially interested in them will give these technologies the greatest chance of being licensed.

What is Patentable?

Technology developed at the University and not previously committed to a commercial sponsor will be marketed to as many companies as appropriate. If the University is to take the lead in identifying potential licensees, a non-confidential disclosure is prepared. This is a marketing document that has no restrictions on the use to which it will be put, and is intended to spark interest in the technology. The elements of a non-confidential disclosure are:.

As part of this process, all of the specific applications of the technology should be identified. These may constitute discrete fields of use i. It is helpful if the inventor is actively involved in the preparation of a non-confidential disclosure; however, the Office of Research, Innovation and Economic Development will develop one as necessary using information supplied during the invention disclosure process. The non-confidential disclosure will be provided to companies known or believed to be interested in the fields of use of the invention.

Companies that express interest normally will be asked to sign a confidentiality agreement. Subsequently, the Office of Research, Innovation and Economic Development will send confidential information, such as a patent application or research data, to them. Companies will also generally want to talk with the inventor at this stage. In many countries, computer programs, whether in source or object code, are protected under copyright.

The major advantage of copyright protection lies in its simplicity.

Facilitiating Technology-Based Business Launch

Copyright protection does not depend on any formalities such as registration or the deposit of copies in the countries party to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. This means that international copyright protection is automatic - it begins as soon as a work is created. In contrast, a patent must be applied for, in principle, in each country in which you seek patent protection. In order to enjoy patent protection, an application for a patent shall comply with both formal and substantive requirements, and a patented invention shall be disclosed to the public.

Compared with copyright protection, the term of protection is much shorter, namely, in general, 20 years from the filing date of the application. Then why do many people seek to patent their software-related inventions?

The answers is manifold. But one of the strongest reasons is that copyright protection extends only to expressions, and not to ideas, procedures, methods of operation or mathematical concepts as such. However, due to the complex requirements for the grant of patents, the costs for obtaining and enforcing a patent may be costly. Unless you have important financial resources, it may be worth considering whether patenting your software-related innovation is the best way to protect your product. The possibility and feasibility of using other types of intellectual property, such as trademarks, industrial designs and trade secret protection, may also be considered.

Software may be incorporated in a computer or an apparatus, such as a household appliance or a car. But often, such software is created, reproduced and distributed on media such as diskettes, CD-ROMs or an online network which are separate from the hardware. Software may provide technical functions, such as controlling a machine or regulating the room temperature.

It may be used to monitor communication network systems or provide interfaces between a computer and a human being. Or, it may be used to process scientific, financial, economic or social data in order to, for example, explore a new scientific theory or seek the highest possible return on an investment.

Depending on how the software is used together with the hardware, what you wish to protect from your competitor may differ. The core part of your software-related innovation may lie in an apparatus, a system, an algorithm, a method, a network, the processing of data or the software itself. Such considerations may help you assess the possibilities to obtain a patent for your innovation as described in TIP 3 below.

To be eligible for patent protection, an invention must meet several criteria. Among those, five are most significant in determining patentability: Since patent law is applicable to inventions in any field of technology without discrimination, to be patentable, software-related inventions and business method-related inventions must also comply with those requirements.

In connection with software-related innovation, particular attention should be paid to the requirements concerning patentable subject matter and inventive step non-obviousness. Since this requirement varies from one country to another, as explained further in TIP 4, you should pay special attention as to whether your software-related innovation is covered by patentable subject matter under the relevant patent law.

What is Patentable?

Secondly, in order to obtain a patent, an invention must not be obvious to a person skilled in the art having regard to the prior art. It is not enough that the claimed invention is new, i. But the difference between the claimed invention and the existing state of the art should be significant and essential to the invention. Therefore, it is most likely that it will not be possible to obtain a patent for a software-related innovation that simply replaces existing technical and physical solutions with the same solutions using software and a computer, insofar as such a replacement would be obvious to an average engineer in the relevant technical field.

Do these explanations sound complex? Indeed, it is legally and technically complicated to meet all the necessary requirements to obtain a patent. That is why it is recommended that you contact an intellectual property specialist who is familiar with both technical and legal matters, as further described in TIP 5. If you wish to protect your innovation abroad, in principle, you need to obtain a patent in each country in which you are interested in accordance with the law of that country.

A patent that is granted in country X, can be enforced only in country X, and it is not possible to stop your competitors using your invention in other countries. In some regions, a regional patent office, for example, the European Patent Office, accepts regional patent applications, or grants patents, which have the same effect as applications filed, or patents granted, in the member states of that region.

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One example is the requirement concerning patentable subject matter. For example, methods for controlling an industrial process, processing of data representing physical entities temperature, size, shape etc. A computer system used in the field of finance may have a technical character if the process is based on technical considerations relating to how a computer works for example, improvement of security , rather than just on the consideration as to how the financial system works.