The Patent Box: Introduction to Patents
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The Liverpool Inventors Club held a meeting on April 29, 2013, focusing on patents, their importance for businesses, and the process of obtaining them. Key topics included the nature of patents, their duration and enforcement, as well as the costs associated and the necessity for professional assistance in drafting specifications. The session concluded with a discussion on patent strategies and available tax incentives post-April 2013.
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The Patent Box: Introduction to Patents
- 1. Liverpool Inventors Club 29 April 2013, 16:00 – 18:00 Jane Lambert
- 2. Programme 16:00 Jane Lambert, Introduction 16:15 Vince Walker, The Patent Box 16:45 Jane Lambert, Alternatives to Patents 17:00 Questions and Discussion 17:30 Refreshments
- 3. Introduction What is a patent? Why do businesses want a patent? How do they get a patent? How much does a patent cost?
- 4. What is a patent? A patent is a monopoly of a new invention. An invention can be a product or a process. If an invention is a product, a patent confers the exclusive right to make, dispose of, offer to dispose of, use, import or keep the product in the territory for which the patent is granted. If an invention is a process, a patent confers the exclusive right to use the process including the right to dispose of, offer to dispose of, use, import or keep any product obtained directly from that process.
- 5. What is a patent? The monopoly can last up to 20 years from the date upon which the patent is applied for. The monopoly can be revoked or amended at any time if a court or the issuing patent office decides that the patent should never have been granted. The monopoly is enforced by legal proceedings in the civil courts.
- 6. What is a patent? A patent is registered with the issuing patent office and is set out in a document known as a “specification” which is issued to the patent owner or “patentee”. A specification consists of a description and claims. The description describes the technical problem that the invention solves and explains how a “person skilled in the art” (someone who understands the technology) can make or use the invention. The specification usually contains drawings or diagrams.
- 7. What is a patent? The claims are a set of numbered paragraphs that set out the features (or “integers”) of the invention. A patent is said to be infringed if a someone makes a product or uses a process that has all the features of at least one of those claims without the patentee’s permission.
- 8. Why do businesses want a patent? The monopoly prevents competitors from making or importing products or using a process having the features of at least one of the claims for up to 20 years. Such competitive advantage allows the patentee to recoup his or her R & D costs and maybe make a tidy sum on the side. If a patentee cannot work the invention, he or she can sell the patent to someone else (as “assignment”) or allow a third party to work it (a “licence”).
- 9. Why do businesses want a patent? Many lenders or investors (venture capitalists and angels) will not fund a new business unless new inventions are patented. Some grants are conditional upon patent protection for new invention. Since 1 April 2013 there has been the patent box tax incentive.
- 10. How to get a patent? Patents are granted by nations or groups of nations for defined territories. There is no such thing as a “world” or “EU patent” though there is a Patent Co-operation Treaty (“PCT”) that helps inventors get patent protection in many countries from a single application and there is a European Patent Convention (“EPC”) that allows the European Patent Office (“EPO”) in Munich to grant patents known as “European patents” for one or more European countries simultaneously.
- 11. How to get a patent? Patents for the UK are granted by the Intellectual Property Office (“IPO”) in Newport or the EPO in Munich. European patents that are granted for the UK are known as “European Patents (UK)”. The requirements for a British patent from the IPO are very much the same as those for a European patent from the EPO. The invention is new, inventive, useful and not fall within a number of excluded categories.
- 12. How to get a patent? The specification has to be drawn up with very great care and skill. It must be wide enough to protect the invention from competition but if it claims matter that has already been invented it will be invalid. The professionals who are best placed to prepare the specification are “patent agents” or “patent attorneys”. Most have scientific or technical qualifications and all have a training in IP law.
- 13. How to get a patent? Patent and trade mark agents are regulated by the IP Regulation Board (“IP Reg”). Some patent agents practise as sole practitioners in firms or companies while others are employed by big companies and other organizations. The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys website has a searchable databases of patent agencies at www.cipa.org.uk. Patent Information Units and other organizations run patent clinics staffed by patent agents.
- 14. How to get a patent? Patent and trade mark agents are regulated by the IP Regulation Board (“IP Reg”). Some patent agents practise as sole practitioners in firms or companies while others are employed by big companies and other organizations. The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys website has a searchable databases of patent agencies at www.cipa.org.uk. Patent Information Units and other organizations run patent clinics staffed by patent agents.
- 15. How much does a patent cost? Costs vary according to the complexity of the specification and the number of countries for which patent protection is sought. However, it would be prudent to budget for: - Patent office costs for searches, examinations etc; - Patent attorneys’ fees for searches, drafting specifications, correspondence with the patent office and other attorneys and possibly hearings; - Renewal fees which increase with time in some countries; - Translation costs; and - Enforcement costs or insurance against such costs.
- 16. Further Information Jane Lambert 4 – 5 Gray’s Inn Square London WC1R 5AH Tel 020 7404 5252 [email protected] 4-5ip.blogspot.co.uk