How do you get an idea patented?

While an idea is not eligible for patent protection, most reproduceable inventions are. If you have created something new, novel, and reproduceable, chances are that your creation is eligible for legally enforceable intellectual property rights protection.

Vietnam patent 

It’s important to understand that not all creations are treated the same under the law. If you’re an artist, author, or musician and you’ve created an original work of art or authorship, your work isn’t patentable. Instead, you’ll want to register the copyright for your work (which is created as soon as your work is fixed in a tangible form) with the U.S. Copyright Office. If your business has developed a branding tool, such as a graphic, logo, phrase, original domain name, etc. then you’ll need to register your original trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. However, if your novel and reproduceable creative work is a manufactured product, process, machine, product design, or plant species, that work may be patentable.

Source: Quora

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Should a startup founder worry about patents?

When you are in the early stages of your start-up, it may be tempting to cut corners in any way that you can to save time and money. However, you should realize that by doing this you aren’t setting up your business for the best scenario for success. 

Register patent in Vietnam

If you believe that your company brings a unique invention that other people could find useful, then you can certainly apply for a patent. Doing so early on can protect your business from potential issues in the future and it will solidify your legal claim to the idea that you are patenting. You may be surprised to learn that disputes over patents between companies is not exactly rare. If you put patents at the top of the list early on, you will save yourself a lot of headache in the future.

It is wise to consult the advice of a patent attorneys in Vietnam to help assist you with your patent. We are a legal marketplace with quality lawyers who are knowledgeable in various areas of the law—including patents.

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What are requirements for a patent?

Here are for obtaining a patent under U.S. law.

Requirements for Obtaining a Patent

Patent Attorney in Vietnam

1. To obtain a patent in the U.S., you must demonstrate that the idea is:

 -Eligible for patent protection

-Novel and does not infringe on the patents of another

-Non-obvious

-Useful

2. Once you have determined that your patent meets the above through development of your idea and a thorough patent search, you would then prepare and file your patent application along with the requisite filing fee.

Is It Necessary to Have a Prototype or Are the Designs Enough? and How Specific Do the Designs Need to Be?

While a prototype can be helpful in supporting your patent application, a working prototype is not required to apply for patent protection. However, you are required to describe your invention with a level of detail such that a skilled individual could recreate your invention from the specifications. Essentially, you will need to provide as much detail as possible.

Is It Possible to Get a Patent for Free?

You will need to pay the filing fees to the USPTO associated with your patent application. You can find a schedule of the USPTO fees here. Additionally, given the complexities of the patent process, you may also want to retain a patent attorney to assist you to improve the likelihood that your application will be approved.

Source: Quora

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How does a patent differ from a copyright?

Copyright protects a creative work, fixed in a tangible medium. Patents protect an invention, including a method, article of manufacture, machine, drug, etc.

Patent Attorney in Vietnam

Copyright is automatic, as soon as you create the work. It can also be registered by providing a copy of your work to the Library of Congress (in the US) or similar entity in other countries, which provides you with the ability to sue for statutory damages for infringement, collect attorney fees, etc. Copyright is cheap, around $35 to register a work, and lasts for the lifetime of the author plus 70 years. BUT, it doesn't stop someone else from making the same exact work independently - only if they actually COPY you. For example, if someone lived in a cave for years and independently, without ever hearing about Harry Potter, wrote a story about a boy wizard with a scar who visits Bogwarts Castle and fights the unmentionable one, that wouldn't infringe Rowling's copyright (but good luck proving that they never heard of it).

Copyright is very useful where your specific work is desired, such as a AAA game, a famous work of art or novel, a tv show or movie, music from a specific artist, etc.  It isn't useful where consumers want the functionality, like "a mobile match-3 game" or "a word processor" but don't care who it comes from. For example, copyright is great for protecting "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" because consumers want that rather than the knock off "Space Game: Power Wakes Up"... but it isn't that helpful for protecting "Tiny Tower" vs. "Dream Heights" vs. "Sim Tower" vs. "Tower Game", etc., etc.

Patents, on the other hand, protect implementations of the underlying idea. A patent prevents others from making, using, selling, or importing the invention, even if they independently create it.  Patents prevent those knock offs - it doesn't matter what you call your machine; if it does the same thing, in the same way, with the same parts, as someone's patented machine, it infringes. Patents are much more powerful than copyright in that way... but they only last 20 years from the date of filing, and can cost between $10-25k to obtain, sometimes more, and it may be several years from filing before they are issued. Patents are examined by patent examiners with experience in the relevant industry, and are only issued when the examiner is assured that the invention is new, non-obvious, and sufficiently described in the patent application to enable another person of skill in the art to make and use the invention.

Patents and copyrights can cover the same thing - software is copyrighted as soon as it's written, since it's a work of creativity; but it can also be covered by a patent on the functionality. This overlapping protection is useful for protecting against different types of infringement, from piracy to competitors.

Related post: What is difference between copyright and patent?

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Can you resell patents? Is there a platform for this?

A patent is a business asset, just like machinery or great processes - therefore it can be sold. A patent is simply a legal document granted by the USPTO that grants ownership of an invention for a period of 20 years (in most cases). However, in order to actually profit from a brilliant idea in which you’ve patented you must either sell the patent, license the usage rights, or market/create the product yourself. With a creative idea and strong patent, that list definitely goes from easiest to most difficult.

Patent Attorney in Vietnam

If you have full rights to patent and have made the decision to sell, there are a few ways to make this happen. Unfortunately, there is not some online exchange for this. However, you can still find the right person or company to sell your invention to. I recommend making direct contact with businesses that are in the same market and may be interested in your product. Additionally, you can attend trade shows to further network.

Sometimes it does take some money on the part of the patent holder in order to sell a patent. You may have some success buying ad space in industry magazines or trade publications to reach additional potential buyers. If all of these steps still don’t offer any leads, it may be necessary to use a broker to sell the patent. They will take a percentage of the total sale for their efforts.

Source: Raad Ahmed - Quora

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Can an invention be patented if it isn't new?

While you can’t patent an invention that has already been patented, you may be able to patent a particular function or design of it.

Patent Attorney in Vietnam

A utility patent is appropriate for new or improved inventions. Of course, in your situation, it would be for an improvement on an existing invention and not a patent for a brand new idea.

A design patent doesn’t focus on the use of the product at all. Instead, it focuses on the ornamental features of it. So, if you are creating a brand new look to an existing invention, then this may be protectable under this type of patent.

Source: Quora

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Intellectual Property Law: What makes a patent valid?

The validity of a patent can be relevant in two ways:

First, someone can challenge the validity of your patent and second, you can question the validity of theirs. Patent validity is an important question when litigation is being brought or considered.

Patent Attorney in Vietnam

A patent is a set of rights granted by a government that protects an invention. If a patent is given to the applicant, they have the right to block others from making, selling or importing their invention into the country for twenty years from the date of filing.

Prior Art is any evidence of your invention existing before the date you filed your patent application. Prior art can be evidence that an invention – the same or similar to yours – has been demonstrated to the public, written about in a magazine or that there are existing patents related to your invention.

Any references used to invalidate a patent must be from before the date of priority. The date of priority is when you filed your application. For prior art to be relevant, it must have existed before this date.

When you apply for a patent, you are obliged by law to report all known relevant references. Your patent application will also prompt the patent office to perform a prior art search to determine if the invention is novel and non-obvious.

If another inventor or company believes that prior art exists, which would invalidate your patent, they may start litigation against you.

After Infringement:

If you have infringed someone else’s patent, there are a few options open to you depending on how willing the patent holder is to negotiate. The patent holder may agree to sell you the patent or license it out to you for a fee.

Intellectual property laws have been constructed to encourage companies to cross license and come up with solutions to infringement that result in innovations and products. If you have infringed a patent, particularly in error, you stand a good chance of coming to an agreement with the patent owner.

A Blocking Patent:

 If no agreement can be reached with the patent owner, then their patent becomes a blocking patent. It blocks or prevents you from manufacturing or selling your invention. In this case, you need to take steps to invalidate their patent.

Patent Validity Search:

A patent validity search is a search of prior art designed to examine all possible areas where information might be found. The search is guided by information about the target patent; the patent which is stopping you from operating.

Claims Mapping:

Claims chart mapping is an infringement analysis. This process involves examining the claims in a patent.

Unlike the invention description, the patent claims can change throughout the process of the application. Inventors usually start off claiming a lot of protection across broad ideas and are told they can’t get that level of coverage. They then narrow down what they are claiming legal protection for in the patent.

An examination of the claims is essential to understand where the prior art may be relevant. This is true whether you are seeking to prove that your patent does not infringe anyone else’s rights or if you think someone else has infringed yours.

Infringement of Your Patent:

A patent validity search can interchangeably be called an invalidity search. The same extensive search for prior art is undertaken but with a view to proving a rival patent invalid rather than ensuring the validity of your own.

In this case, you want to examine any prior art that may invalidate the claims made in the target patent.

NPE Demand Letters:

A demand letter is a letter putting forward a legal claim and demand for restitution. This could come from a rival company who think you have infringed their intellectual property rights, or it could be from a non-practicing entity or NPE.

NPE companies have no products or services. They make money by acquiring intellectual property rights such as patents and using them as a basis for legal action.

NPE companies are bad news because they are only after financial gain and cannot be appealed to on any other grounds. The best way to counter these companies is to deter them from choosing to go after you.

Having a strong and well-protected intellectual property portfolio is central to this strategy. A good claims chart mapping process is in important in this case also.

The Importance of Validity Searching:

Validity searching improves your business on some levels. It can help you to prove infringements and refute accusations of infringements. Both of these actions build the strength of your intellectual property portfolio and make it more valuable. This is true whether you want to use, sell or license your intellectualproperty.

A strong reputation can be built upon this strong intellectual property portfolio. If rivals and NPEs think you are a soft target, they will commit resources and time to trying to find a problem with your patents. If you have a highly defensible patent portfolio, you will reduce the amount of people who see you as a worthwhile target.

Conduct a Patent Validity Search to:

- Invalidate a blocking patent

- Establish deterrents to demand letters from NPEs

- Carry out due diligence on a patent, patent portfolio or pending patent application.

Source: Quora

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What are the steps to getting a patent in the United States?

Congratulations on creating an app and wanting to take the next steps to protect your work. Here is a brief overview of the steps for obtaining a patent through the USPTO.

First, you need to be sure that no one else has already come up with the same product or technology and secured a patent on it. You do this by performing a thorough patent search. This is something you could try to do yourself, but often it’s best to engage the help of a professional who is familiar with conducting these types of searches and can give you an opinion.

Patent Consultant in Vietnam

Next, you’ll need to determine what type of patent you would be pursuing. The most common options are a design patent or a utility patent. In your case you would be filing for a utility patent.

Now you need to decide whether you are filing for a provisional or nonprovisional patent. A provisional patent is the first step to securing a filing date if you’re not ready to file the nonprovisional patent and start the examination process, but ultimately you’ll need to get a nonprovisional patent to protect your idea.

Finally, you’ll need to prepare and file the application along with the application fee. As this can be a confusing and difficult process, it’s recommended to hire an attorney to prepare the application for you. At this stage you’ll put together all the necessary information and submit it to the USPTO for examination. Once received by the USPTO, they will review the application and issue a determination. If it’s denied you’ll have the opportunity to appeal and request reconsideration.

Once a patent is ultimately approved, you’ll need to maintain it by paying the required maintenance fees to the USPTO.

Source: Quora

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What do the terms “patent pending” and “patent applied for” mean?

If you're involved in the patent process, then it will certainly be beneficial to understand what specific terms and phrases mean.

Vietnam patent

The terms "patent pending" and "patent applied for" are virtually the same concept. This means that you have applied for the patent, but have not yet been issued. Essentially, it indicates that you have applied for protection, but the details and scope of that protection are yet to be determined.

You may be curious as to why this status has any bearing in the business world. Actually, it can let investors know that you have taken the first steps and have a plan in the works. For some, this is enough to move forward with further discussions.

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What is the most elegant patent application?

I associate the word "elegant" with solutions to problems that are well-defined. With that point of view, the word does not even apply to a patent application. That is, "elegance" is not even a goal when preparing a patent application.

Patent Law Firm in Vietnam

Basically, writing a patent application is like creating software, within a budget (explicitly stated or implicit) that is going to be released into the wild for maybe 20 years, with no opportunity to fix it after it has been released.

Actually, writing a patent application is a little more difficult than that. It's more like creating the software and also writing a description of it. No matter what the software functionally can do, it is limited by its description, so you want to make the description as broad as possible. On the other hand, the description can be attacked if it says the software does more than it actually is capable of doing, so you don't want to make the description too broad.

One of the first tasks is to try to anticipate all the problems that might arise over the next 20 years or so, which is already very challenging. Then, of course, you have to try to address those problems as best you can.

Therefore, it is much more important to make a patent application as strong and robust as possible, given the limited resources available, than it is to make it elegant.

That said, as with pretty much any job, it is possible to come up with clever or even out-of-the-box solutions to certain sub-problems within the overall job. However, those solutions, while satisfying to the patent attorney, are almost always invisible to others.

I have had litigators who were enforcing patents I drafted and prosecuted, compliment me on the quality of the patent application, but it is rare that anyone else would have sufficient expertise and also an opportunity to examine a patent application closely enough to notice how good, or bad, it is.

ANT Lawyers - A Law firm in Vietnam is supported by a team of experienced patent, trademark, design attorneys with qualification and skills handling full range of legal services relating to intellectual property rights in Vietnam.  We have specialized in the preparation and registration of patents, trademarks and designs for our clients.

Source: Quora

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What’s a Patent?

A patent in an exclusive right granted by a country to the owner of an invention to make, use, manufacture and market the invention, provided the invention satisfies certain conditions stipulated in the law. Exclusivity of right implies that no one else can make, use, manufacture or market the invention without the consent of the patent holder. This right is available only for a limited period of time. However, the use or exploitation of a patent may be affected by other laws of the country which has awarded the patent. A patentee must disclose the invention in a patent document for anyone to practice it after the expiry of the patent or practice it with the consent of the patent holder during the life of the patent.

Patent Law Firm in Vietnam

INVENTIONS PATENTABLE

-Art, Process, Method or Manner of manufacture;

-Machine, Apparatus or other Articles;

-Substances produced by Manufacturing

-Computer Software which has Technical application to Industry or is used with Hardware

-Product Patent for Food / Chemical / Medicines or Drugs.

INVENTIONS NOT PATENTABLE

-Frivolous or obvious inventions.

-Inventions which could be contrary to law or morality or injurious to human, animal or plant life and health or to the environment.

-Mere discovery of the scientific principle or the formulation of an abstract theory or discovery of any living thing or non-living substances occurring in nature

-Mere discovery of any new property or mere new use for known substance or the mere use of a known process, machine or apparatus- unless results to new products or employs one new reactant.

-Producing a new substance by mere admixtures of substances.

-Mere arrangement/rearrangement or duplication of known devices functioning independently.

-Method of agriculture and horticulture

-Any process for the medicinal or surgical, curative prophylactic, diagnostic, therapeutic or other treatment of human beings, animals to render them free of disease or to increase their economic value or that of their products.

T-he biological processes for production or propagation of plants and animals in whole or any part thereof other than micro-organisms but including seeds, varieties and species (new plant varieties can be protected by the protection of plant varieties and farmers act 2001).

-A mathematical or business method or algorithms.

-A Computer Programme per se other than its technical application to industry or a combination with hardware.

-Aesthetic creation including cinematography and television production.

-Method for performing mental act or playing game.

-Presentation of information.

-Topography of Integrated Circuits.

-Invention which in effect, is traditional knowledge or which is an aggregation or duplication of known properties of traditionally known components.

-Inventions relating to Atomic Energy.

REQUIREMENTS FOR FILING THE PATENT IN INDIA

-Full name, address & nationality of applicant (s) and inventor (s).

-Specification, provisional / complete drawings , claims and abstract.

-List of countries to claim priority , if any, where the application / applications for the grant of patent has / have been filed , along with date and application number.

PROCEDURE FOR THE GRANT OF PATENT

-After filing Patent Application in India, a Request for Examination is filed with the Patent Office

-Thereafter the application is examined by patent office and objections, if any, are raised thereto.

-After removal of all the objections, the Patent is granted and is advertised for Opposition Purposes.

-The Patent is Open for third party opposition(s), if any, for a period of ONE YEAR from the date of advertisement.

RENEWAL

The patent is renewed every year from the date of patent.

Disclaimer: All the content provided in this article is for information purposes only. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries or damages from the display or use of this information. The owner of this blog is an intern at Legistify. To reach more such informative blogs, follow this link https://www.legistify.com/blogs

Source: Quora

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Sharp Plans to Build A New Factory in Vietnam, Operating in 2020

China will not be Sharp’s place of manufacturing LCD screens for cars sold in the US, this stage will be transferred to Vietnam. Sharp is going to set up factory in Vietnam.

According to Sharp, they will build a new factory in Vietnam to avoid the new tax imposed in the long-running US – China trade war.

The factory in Vietnam will assemble LCD screens for cars sold in the US. At the same time, about 10% of Dynabook’s production of personal computers can also be transferred from China to the new facility.

Sharp has not disclosed the investment amount to build a new factory but said it will operate in 2020 near Ho Chi Minh City. At the same time, Sharp will establish a subsidiary company with a capital of 25 million USD to operate the plant. In addition to LCD screens, this factory will also produce air conditioners and other electronic devices for sale in Vietnam.

ANT Lawyers is a Law firm in Vietnam with international standards, recognized by Legal500, IFLR1000. We are an exclusive Vietnam member of Prea Legal, the global law firm network coverig more than 150 juridictions. The firm provides a range of legal services as following to multinational and domestic clients.

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