With patent lawsuits flying all over the globe, especially with Apple, this is a good time as any to show you how to secure your invention before someone puts their grubby, ham-and-cheese-scented fingers on them.
How to file for a patent:
Whether you choose an attorney to do this for you or you DIY, the choice really is yours. Most countries have a Patent and Trade Mark Office like the USPTO in America where you can receive and submit forms on your own.
Step 1: Search
Have a great idea and think it’s unique and revolutionary? Well, you might want to confirm that first by checking the main registers of patents worldwide. Luckily for you, you can download the extension for free here, instead of paying the exorbitant lawyer’s fees for a simple search.
Step 2: Get a Provisional Patent
Next, file for a provisional patent at your local Receiving Office, one that protects your patent for 12 months while you further test out your invention. No oaths, claims, or declarations necessary for this one.
Step 3: Get an International Patent (PCT)
Fill in some complex forms complete with drawings and send it to your local Receiving Office that operates within the International Patent Law Treaty, which is active in 148 countries since 1970 to ensure that countries and inventors do not step on each other’s toes. Once this application is filed, you have 18-30 months to strategically think about where you want place your product in the next (expensive) step, securing the National Phase Patent.
Step 4: National Phase Patents (Complete Patents)
Here, you choose the countries that you want to secure a patent in. Once accepted you have a 20 year monopoly over the patent in the specified country. These are expensive, around R30 000 / $2800 per country but well worth the effort if you truly have an ingenuous invention.
The costs associated with these are, frankly, quite exorbitant, which reserves these for the most passionate of entrepreneurs, and of course, large companies who are confident that they can put their money where their mouth is. It is always better to receive assistance from a company or a firm to do this the teensiest omission of data or incorrect entry with result in a time consuming rejection.