Patents 101: What are patents and how do you acquire them?
- To get a patent, you need to have your idea or device evaluated, a claim of originality, and filing of an application for patent.
- There are provisional
Patents 101: What are patents and how do you acquire them?
- To get a patent, you need to have your idea or device evaluated, a claim of originality, and filing of an application for patent.
- There are provisional application for patent (also known as a provisional patent application, or PPA), incomplete application for patent, and The International Application filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).
- Filing provisional patent application usually is the best way of protecting a device or process.
- Two phases are generally required for all patents: evaluation and writing
- Writing a patent application requires a subject matter expert, excellent technical writing skills, and preferably (but not required) an attorney or patent agent.
Have you struggled to understand whether you should apply for a patent and what it entails? This article explains the basics to help you expand your knowledge about patents.
An ethical decision
Would you refuse critically needed health care to someone unless paid a handsome profit? What about making a genetically-modified plant if its availability prevented the starvation of millions? How about any device facilitating mobility and communication? Usually, corporations deny inventions to those needing them because of the inability to pay the inflated costs, but individual researchers are not exempt. Before seeking intellectual property protection, you should assess the effects. And take for instance the actual case is of a critical hepatitis C drug sofosbuvir wherein an appeal was lodged against the decision to grant the patent.
Philosophers refer to "ethos" or core values. What is most important to you? No doubt your efforts should be recognized and rewarded if for no other reason than to encourage others to work for humankind's benefit. Hence, to be a part of that community with a "high road ethos" (Horne, 2019), think of your patent as a well-deserved recognition of your efforts and telling the world, "I have come here to share my idea to help you." You should reflect on the implications of your discovery, and this requires introspection and value clarification.
This article outlines the intellectual process of acquiring a patent as a way of achieving a just reward, and not a way of holding captive (as in a ransom) critical discoveries for your private benefit, i.e., acquiring a just reward in a socially conscious manner. We’ll learn the basics of intellectual property protection, what a patent means, the eligibility for applying for a patent, and follow-up.
Likelihood of success
- Ninety-percent or more patents fail to obtain any monetary returns, one claim being 97%.
- An idea's success is assessed by "market analysis," something best left to experts. Identifying a critical need or making a breakthrough in solving a problem for vast numbers of persons are good indicators.
Proceed if you are OK with this. As a researcher, your obtaining a certificate of novelty usually enhances your career track and secures peer recognition, but hopefully and mainly shows you to be a member of society contributing to its wellbeing. Again, identify your core values.
Now, examine your circumstances allowing or not allowing you to file for a patent. Check with your organization or employer to see if you can obtain for yourself a patent based on the research done in your environment. Many organizations, including governments, educational institutions, and businesses, will claim ownership rights deriving from on-the-job research. It is common to sign any rights over to them if research and development are done on the job or are job-related. Check your non-disclosure/non-compete agreement, for example. If such applies to you, learning the details about applying for a patent becomes moot. Review all the agreements you signed when you joined the organization.
Basic forms of IP protection
The three basic forms of protection are copyrights, trade secrets, and patents.
Copyright applies to authors, musicians, poets, painters, etc. While there is no "global copyright," applying for it in any country is recognized worldwide by the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.
2. Trade secrets
Trade secrets are ideas, processes, methods, information, etc. that are known only to a select few persons beholden to the entity (organization of individuals) who would benefit or, if known, would allow others economic advantage. These could include recipes (such as for a soft drink or food preparation), manufacturing processes or techniques, or organizational/individual secrets making a public presentation possible. Wikipedia has a very well-sourced article on the subject.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a United Nations Organization was established "to encourage creative activity, to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world" (W). Under its auspices is the Patent Convention Treaty (PCT), an internationally recognized agreement making the patent application process uniform worldwide. As per WIPO, this is the meaning of a patent:
A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention, which is a product or a process that provides, in general, a new way of doing something, or offers a new technical solution to a problem. [...] To get 