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Patents
A patent is a twenty year monopoly right granted by
the Government of individual countries and regional patent granting
authorities such as the European Patent Office for inventions in exchange
for these inventions being made freely available to the public after
the monopoly period expires. The public policy principle at the root
of patent protection is that by providing innovative people with a
twenty year monopoly for their inventions, more people will be
encouraged to innovate technical solutions. As a result of this
innovation, our economy will grow in harmony with our lives being
made safer and easier by useful inventions. Patents are granted for
novel and inventive technical products and processes capable of
being used in any kind of industry.
No
disclosure prior to filing a patent application
As a
result of the requirement for novelty, it is essential not to
disclose any information in relation to your invention prior to
filing a patent application.
If you publicly disclose details which would enable
understanding of your invention to just one person who is not bound
by confidentiality, then any subsequent patent could be declared
invalid.
Negative rights
Another essential aspect of patents is that
they grant negative as opposed to positive rights. In other
words, a patent gives you the right to prevent a third party from
making or using your invention. However, a granted patent does not
bestow any positive rights on its owner so obtaining the grant of a
patent does not automatically allow the patent proprietor to make or
use their invention. Although you may have obtained a patent for an
improvement to a product or process, if the product or process you
have improved is still covered by an earlier patent then this right
could prevent you from putting your product on the market. Of
course, the owner of the earlier patent can not use your improvement
without infringing your patent.
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