|
A Few Fundamentals
Patents are for inventions. An invention is an original, novel and industrially or commercially useful product, process or apparatus. Patents are not granted for good ideas as such nor for eye-pleasing designs nor books nor music nor a better way to run a business. Other types of legal protection may be available - please consult us.
Patents are granted only to inventors (or their employers, etc.). Someone who learns about an invention from someone else has no right to obtain a patent
Patents are territorial. They have effect only in the country for which they are granted. Obtaining a U.S. patent gives the patentee no rights in Canada, and vice versa.
Patents are granted for a limited term. In most countries, the term is 20 years. In Canada and the U.S., the term is 20 years from the filing date. No legal right to sue an infringer arises until grant, but in some countries, a retroactive claim may be made relating to pre-grant infringing activities.
You may obtain a patent but may not necessarily have any right to practise your own invention! It is entirely possible for a person to obtain a patent for an invention, yet in the practice of that invention, infringe someone else's patent. If you are thinking about manufacturing a new product or investing in a plant that will use a new process, then you should be thinking not only about obtaining a patent for yourself but also about the possibility that you may be infringing someone else's patent.
If you have disclosed your invention to anyone who does not owe you an obligation of confidence, or if you or someone else has sold products embodying your invention, or has practised your invention in a factory or otherwise made your invention public, you may already be too late to obtain a patent, at least in some countries. In Canada and the United States, you may still validly apply for a patent if such public disclosure occurred no more than a year ago, and if a patent application can be prepared and filed within a year of the first such public use, disclosure, sale, etc.
In some countries, including the United States, a provisional patent application can be filed. Usually, the only right arising out of such provisional filing is the right to file a complete application in the same country, and to file any counterpart applications in other countries, within 12 months of the provisional filing, with the benefit of the priority date of the first-filed case.
|
|
