Patenting An Idea: What You Need To Know

Patent protections exist in order to help inventors, designers and creators legally safeguard their work from those who would seek to use or profit off of it without express permission. The first thing that a patent applicant must do before formally filing for this type of protection is to determine what kind of application to file.

There are three types of patents available to individuals and businesses. First, those interested in protecting new and unique asexually reproducing plant species and hybrids may file for plant patents. Second, those wishing to safeguard designs of existing manufactured products and processes may consider filing for design patents. And finally, nine out of every ten patent applicants will opt to file for utility patent protections in order to ensure the proprietary nature of their manufactured products, processes and ideas.

Once the correct patent type has been identified, it is time to decide whether to file provisionally or non-provisionally.

Provisional Vs. Non-Provisional Patents

If you are planning to file for a design patent, you only have one type of application available to you. But if you are planning to file for a utility patent, you have two application options available. When the United States Patent and Trademark Office processes patent applications, it grants each request a filing date. This filing date is critical because it is the date that the USPTO will essentially start granting an affected product, process, design or idea protection in the event that a formal patent is eventually granted. This date therefore allows the patent holder a reference point upon which protections may be enforced in court.

The filing date is also critical because when prior art threatens to infringe upon the novelty of the product, idea, design or process in question, the USPTO evaluates the creation of that prior art against the filing date. Practically speaking, this means that the more quickly a patent applicant secures a filing date, the more secure that applicant may rest in the novelty of a creation and the potential for enforcement against any eventual attempts at infringement.

When an individual or business files a non-provisional application, the filing date is secured automatically because this application type formally requests patent protection. This is the only option available to applicants for design patents. Utility applicants may also file a provisional form up to 365 days before filing a nonprovisional request. A provisional application will allow an individual or business to secure a favorable nonprovisional filing date while granting the applicant extra time to formalize their formal, nonprovisional request.

The Patent Application Process

The nonprovisional patent application process is especially intricate and time-consuming. It is important to understand that any incorrect or incomplete elements of an application may lead to its rejection. Given how critical it is for an applicant to secure protections in accordance with an application’s initial filing date, it is best to avoid preventable rejection whenever possible. As a result, it is generally a good idea for both individuals and businesses seeking patent protection to work with legal counsel experienced in intellectual property matters as they prepare to file their applications.

When compiling necessary information for an application, write down every detail that could possibly impact the filing. Dates of improvements to the product, prototype drawings, research notes, etc., may all help to ensure that the USPTO ultimately determines that a product, process, idea or design is novel, non-obvious and (when required) useful. Aiding your attorney by providing all potentially relevant information will be very helpful to the process of compiling and filing your application.

It is worth noting that if for some reason your application is rejected twice, you may be able to appeal the USPTO’s original determination. Your attorney will be able to assist you with the appeals process. Similarly, if you feel the need to amend your application before it has been formally reviewed, your attorney will be able to assist you with the amendment process.

If filing a patent doesn't work out, other avenues to explore may be copyright, trademark and trade secret rights. I believe that creative work is uniquely valuable and should be protected under the law.

The information provided here is not legal advice and does not purport to be a substitute for advice of counsel on any specific matter. For legal advice, you should consult with an attorney concerning your specific situation.

Source: Forbes.com

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Why does Coca Cola Company fail to protect their receipe with patents?

We shall remember that, at any time, choices of IP protection shall always rest on profitability. If the patent protection make people lose money, then people would choose to avoid that.

By patenting the receipe of coke, Coca Cola company have to DISCLOSE the receipe to the world. In return, the receipe MAY be protected for a max of 20 years. After the protecting period expires, Coca Cola receipe falls into public knowledge, and anyone may use it anywhere.

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It is not so easy to crack the coke receipe. Why would Coca Cola disclose their receipe to exchange for a short protection?

Surely, if the receipe is disclosed accidentally, anyone in the world may begin to use this receipe, and numberous competitors appear. In order to minimize the harm brought by the possible competitors, Coca Cola has invested a lot of money on their Trademarks and Scale of Production.

Now Coca Cola have a famous brand. Even two coke products taste the same, you would still choose Coca Cola.

By holding huge scale of production, Coca Cola is able to produce coke at a very very low cost. Even when another company begin to produce the same coke, they can never make coke this cheap.

Even when it is profitable to patent your product, you may still see no “patent” directly linked to a particular “product model”. See iPhone. Thousand of patents may be linked to the product, and there is no patent to protect “iPhone X”. We may need such strategies to mislead competitors, max the protection range, …

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Who benefits from intellectual property laws?

The traditional economic argument for patenting is that since innovation is a highly risky endeavor and the benefits to society are often greater than the benefits to the innovator, if filled with rational actors, society would otherwise underinvest in innovation. In addition, if the innovator keeps her invention secret then it is difficult for others to benefit from this information and make further innovations. So the solution offered by patent policy is to give the innovator monopoly profits for a period of time in exchange for putting the information behind the patent into the pubic domain.  There are other methods for encouraging innovation, including R&D tax credits, subsidies, government procurement, or prizes for innovation.

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Arora and coauthors (2008) find that patents stimulate R&D across a wide range of manufacturing industries. Moser (2005) finds that countries without patent protection tend to concentrate their innovation in industries where trade secrets are most effective, so patenting spreads out the distribution of innovative activity. However, she also concludes that for developing countries creating a patent system may not be an optimal solution initially.

Generally speaking, IP law favors creators. In most developed nations, it is possible for private litigants to prevail in court when substantive claims are made. There is a long history of cases decided for the "little guy".

Corporate entities may try to stall such proceedings or to overwhelm claimants, but well documented IP rights are often upheld or settled for the benefit of the creator.

Without such laws, we would be awash in a sea of piracy. We would be left only with trade secrets as our sole protection which would make production costs skyrocket, or keep artists and trade entities relatively unknown and mired in litigation.

This is not to say that all use of IP law is fair to creators and consumers. Knowledgable artists will be among the first to point to "public domain" as a key and critical part of IP law which is being usurped by corporations in the USA and possibly globally. Public domain is built on a premise that at some point, creations become a part of the cultural fabric.

The Micky Mouse character known as "Steamboat Willie" is often cited as central to this debate. As the film short was about to enter public domain American copyright protections were extended to protect this Walt Disney property. However a viable argument can and is often made that Disney can protect its interests through Trademark law, while allowing the world access to the original production as a part of global culture through public domain.

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