How do I write a good provisional patent application?

A provisional patent - as you may already know - helps you buy some time (up to a year ) as you market and possibly develop your idea. This way, if the idea gains traction at some point during the year, you can convert this provisional patent to a fully-fledged utility patent. If not this, you can simply let it expire or lapse after testing the waters and realizing that it wasn't such a good idea to invest hundred of hours and thousands of dollars paying for a utility patent.

Nationalize PCT Patent Application in Vietnam

That being said, here is a quick primer on how to craft a provisional patent:

1. Research Thoroughly

Even before of thinking of filing for a provisional patent, you should first of all do a comprehensive patent search to know whether or not the idea you are interested in has already received another patent protection. Apart from that, conducting a separate search to ascertain that there haven't been any similar inventions that are patented is also a good way of avoiding a corporate lawsuit later. At the same time, you are also likely to come across suggestions of many available unpatented ideas that are in case yours is already taken. Either way, doing a thorough patent search is inevitable as long as you are considering to copyright your innovation.

2. Be Simple, Focused but Thorough

The provisional patent application ought to paint the picture of a unique innovation by listing the specific features/benefits that prove its novelty. In other words, a well-thought and thorough profile is likely to increase the chances of your application getting approved.

3. The Application Package

The full application package ought to tie in the following;

a. The specification of the innovation

b. A drawing of the innovation

c. The filing fee

d. The USPTO Cover

As far as the main body goes, it should consist of the Description of the Innovation, Tittle, Abstract, and the Claim.

Nowadays, you also have to include the drawings of the invention. These can be scanned into the main text area, sketched by hand or designed by CAD, manuals, design software or Powerpoint. Next up is the Claims that describe in detail what the patent seeks to protect. You don't have to include this, but it is recommended that you have them on your provisional patent application.

Lastly, you will have to paste an abstract that summarizes your invention. For this part, it is easier to re-state ( in a few words ) what you had described in the Claims.

The best way to draft a provisional patent application? Ideally, it’s with the assistance of a patentattorney. Patent lawyers do this stuff for a living and will maneuver the application process so that your utility patent application will be a seamless experience. Feel free to visit ANTLawyers.vn. Our legal marketplace is competitively priced, easy-to-use, and backed by a satisfaction guarantee. We offer free consultations to help make sure you’re hiring an attorney that will help you grow your vision. Good luck!

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What is the PCT supplementary international search?

SUPPLEMENTARY INTERNATIONAL SEARCH

The PCT is an international treaty with more than 145 Contracting States. The PCT makes it possible to seek patent protection for an invention simultaneously in a large number of countries by filing a single “international” patent application instead of filing several separate national or regional patent applications. The granting of patents remains under the control of the national or regional patent Offices in what is called the “national phase”.

Nationalize PCT Patent Application in Vietnam

The PCT procedure includes:

·        Filing

·        International Search

·        International Publication

·        Supplementary International Search

·        International Preliminary Examination

·        National Phase

What is the PCT supplementary international search?

Supplementary international search permits the applicant to request, in addition to the international search (the “main international search”), one or more supplementary international searches each to be carried out by an ISA other than the ISA which carried out the main international search. The additional search has the potential of reducing the risk of new patent documents and other technical literature being discovered in the national phase since, by requesting supplementary search the applicant can enlarge the linguistic and/or technical scope of the documentation searched.

What is the supplementary international search report?

The supplementary international search report is generally similar in content and appearance to the main international search report; it contains a listing of references to patent documents and other technical literature which may affect the patentability of the invention claimed in the international application. However, it does not repeat documents which have already been cited in the international search report, unless this is necessary because of new relevance when read in conjunction with other documents discovered during the supplementary international search. On occasion, the supplementary international search report may contain more detailed explanations than those in the main international search report. This is due to the fact that, unlike the main international search, no written opinion is established with the supplementary international search report, and these additional details are helpful for a full understanding of the references listed.

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Customs Procedures Handling of Exported and Imported Goods Infringing Intellectual Property Rights.

On conducting customs procedures for exported or imported goods, the customs authority shall be responsible to inspect and compare the declared information of the goods owners on the written customs declarations on goods’ names, trademarks, origin, value,…; Inspect and compare the concluded contents of the State management agencies on the exported or imported goods; Results of customs dossiers inspection with the results of goods actual inspection; To compare the said inspection results with the laws and regulations on counterfeit goods.

Customs dispute law firm in Vietnam

In case the goods are found with intellectual property rights infringement signs, leaders of the Department of Customs where the infringing goods are located shall consider and decide to apply measures to prevent administrative violations and ensure the administrative violations punishment according to Current regulations for the cases:

Imported goods do not comply with goods labeling in accordance with regulations of laws; state inspection conclusion on goods quality or goods quality inspection results determine that the inspected goods do not fulfill requirements on importation and exportation quality; the goods listed in the list of state management agencies that fail to meet quality standards or are not allowed to circulate on the market; The contents stated on the goods labels are incompliant with other enclosed documents and so on.

Regarding the infringing goods and being temporarily suspended, during the time the goods are being temporarily suspended or subjected to prevention measures as prescribed by laws, the Departments Customs shall be responsible to take the following verification measures: Requesting the goods owner, owners of genuine goods which are counterfeited to provide documentation relating to the goods; cooperating with the goods owners and owners of genuine goods being counterfeited to collect samples and unify the appraisement traders to conduct appraisement; coordinating with the anti-smuggling control forces in verification and investigation according to prescribed profession.

Actions against counterfeit goods or goods with signs of counterfeit

In case the imported, exported goods are detected to be counterfeit, preventive and penalty measures in accordance with legislation on penalties for administrative violations shall be applied;

If exported and imported goods are detected with signs of counterfeit, the Director of the Department of Customs shall request the customs declarant to provide documents related to the goods:

A sale contract of goods or vouchers with equivalent value;

A technical document or a written component analysis (if any).

If the owner of the genuine goods which are counterfeited is determined, the owner of genuine goods which are counterfeited shall provide documents related to goods (such as catalogs, appraisement conclusions, and documents from abroad, results of handling of similar cases). If the owner of the genuine goods could not be determined, customs dossiers, genuine goods, analysis results of the risk information of goods and the law on counterfeit goods shall be utilized for identification; customs control forces shall be cooperated to investigate, verify (if necessary) or transfer information, case files to customs control forces to investigate, verify and handle in accordance with regulations of laws.

To learn more about ANT Lawyers IP Practice or contact our IP lawyers in Vietnam for advice via email ant@antlawyers.vn or call our office at (+84) 24 32 23 27 71

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What Important Step-by-Step Guide to Establish Company in Vietnam?

When foreign investors invest in Vietnam, they could establish companyin Vietnam. Foreign investors have the right to choose the appropriate forms of enterprise such as a limited liability company, joint stock company, etc. with specific steps are as follows: 

How To Set-up Trading Company in Vietnam

Step 1: Register the investment project

Investors submit an investment project registration file to the Business Registration office of the province or city or the management board of an industrial zone, an export processing zone or a high-tech zone for the approval of an investment project during the period within 15 days (without time for clarification).

Step 2: Apply for Certificate of investment registration

After approval of the investment project, investors submit a valid record tothe Department of Planning and Investment within 10 days to apply for a business registration certificate.

Step 3: Apply for the certificate of business registration

After obtaining the business registration certificate, the investor shall submit the application for enterprise registration certificate to the enterprise registration office within 3 days.

Step 4: Publish the content of the business registration

After being granted the certificate of enterprise registration, the investor shall disclose information about the enterprise on the national enterprise registration portal within 30 days, including the following information:
i, Business lines;
ii, List of founding shareholders and shareholders being foreign investors for joint-stock companies.

Step 5: Registered business stamp

The enterprise has the right to decide on the form, quantity and contents of the stamp of the enterprise. The content of the stamp must show the following information:
– Company’s name;
– Business code.
After receiving the legal entity stamp and before using the business stamp, the enterprise must send a notice on the stamp of the enterprise to the business registration office for publication in the National Information Portal on the business registration.

Step 6: Notice of use of stamp:

After having stamp made, investors submit notices on use of stamp forms to the Investment registration agency.After receiving the record, the Investment registration agency issues a receipt for the enterprise, publishes the notice of the enterprise on the National Business Information Portal and issues a notice of the posting, stamp samples of enterprises, branches and representative offices for enterprises.

Step 7: Open bank account:

                                                                                          
Investors need to open two types of bank accounts, namely the investment capital account to receive the investment amount and the transaction account for conducting daily transaction in Vietnam.

Step 8: The post licensing procedures:

For the conditional business lines:
Investors investing in conditional businesses lines as regulated in Appendix 4 of the Investment Law 2014 must apply certificate of business qualification, practicing certificates, professional liability insurance, legal capital requirements, etc. before conducting business in Vietnam.

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What is the effect of an international patent application?

The PCT is an international treaty with more than 145 Contracting States. The PCT makes it possible to seek patent protection for an invention simultaneously in a large number of countries by filing a single “international” patent application instead of filing several separate national or regional patent applications. The granting of patents remains under the control of the national or regional patent Offices in what is called the “national phase”.

Nationalize PCT Patent Application in Vietnam

In general terms, your international patent application, provided that it complies with the minimum requirements for obtaining an international filing date, has the effect of a national patent application (and certain regional patent applications) in or for all PCT Contracting States. Moreover, if you comply with certain formal requirements set out in the Treaty and Regulations, which are binding on all of the PCT Contracting States, subsequent adaptation to varying national (or regional) formal requirements (and the cost associated therewith) will not be necessary.

Who has the right to file an internationalpatent application under the PCT?

You are entitled to file an international patent application if you are a national or resident of a PCT Contracting State. If there are several applicants named in the international application, only one of them needs to comply with this requirement.

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What are the pros and cons of intellectual property?

Intellectual Property Rights Pros and Cons

Your company’s name, logo and even your products belong, well, to your company. In a perfect world, that’s how things would remain. These are all forms of intellectual property – you own the rights to that property (intellectual property rights). However, this is far from a perfect world. A quick look at the number of lawsuits revolving around IPR should highlight just how easily one company can infringe on another’s rights, even unintentionally. It also seems to make sense that if you have rights to intellectual property, you should fight for those rights. Is that always the case? Actually, there are quite a few pros and cons here.

Filing Lawsuit to protect intellectualproperty rights in Vietnam

Intellectual Property Rights Pros

There are quite a few pros to protecting your rights in terms of intellectual property. For instance, patents, trademarks and copyrights all give your business important advantages and incentives. Trademarks allow you to build your brand and create a stronger company. That applies to every other company out there, as well. Copyright ensures that a creator continues to own his or her artistic creation (books, artwork, graphic design work, etc.). Patents foster invention and innovation, as well as encouraging inventors to fully explain what’s being invented and how it works.

Intellectual Property Rights Cons

While there are plenty of pros in favor of protecting your rights, there are a few drawbacks here as well. For instance, copyright can be given to works that truly don’t deserve protection under the law, and patents can be given to frivolous things (Amazon’s patenting of “pictures on a white background” is a perfect example of patent frivolity). Other cons involve costs – protecting your rights can be very expensive. Intellectual property rights lawyers (IPR lawyers), court costs, settlement fees, filing fees and numerous other costs can mount very quickly, making protection of intellectual property rights expensive for even very large companies.

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How important is intellectual property protection for a startup?

If you could obtain a patent, that would be a great place to start and you should definitely pursue that. A patent would basically grant you a monopoly on the technology and let you exclude others from using it, or at least they would have to pay you for such use. But, assuming there is no patentable technology like you said, any other intellectual property right  (IP) may or may not be worth it. It really would depend on your business model and plan.

Trademark protection in Vietnam

A trademark on the name of your company is an example of an IP right that could be valuable in building your brand. The trademark would ensure that no one else could use your name and free ride off of any goodwill that you may have worked to build among consumers and customers in the marketplace. On the other hand, that may not be super important to you at the early stages of your startup and you may want to wait until later to get such protection.

IP rights definitely have value because they allow you to differentiate yourself from competitors. However, there will also be a cost of protection. You need to determine whether such value is worth the cost of protection. Sounds easy enough, but if you do decide to pursue IP rights, you should consult with an IP attorney who can help you through the process.

If you are looking for an IP attorney, but are concerned about the typical costs associated with the traditional legal search, you should visit ANTLawyers where we work to trim those costs. We will match you with an experienced IP attorney in Vietnam for a free, no obligation consultation. Hope this helps.

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How do I protect intellectual property for my software?

How do I protect intellectual property for my software?

To protect yourself you can apply for a software patent, but it’s an expensive, time-consuming process with no guarantee. The alternative is to find a work around, you could consider the following steps:

Protect Intellectual Properties Rights in Vietnam

1. Keep It Close

Be very careful about any outsourcing partner you work with, either domestically or overseas. Make sure they have adequate security in place to protect your IP when they work on it. As well, be careful how your IP is accessed by remote teams.

2. Cover Your Legal Bases And Encrypt Your IP

When you work with a developer (local or overseas) you should make sure you have strong legal agreements in place that are enforceable in the developer’s local court system as well. You should also employ strong encryption internally for sensitive IP, and make sure y okour partners employ the proper levels of encryption. It seems like a lot of overhead, but it is far cheaper than dealing with a breach of trust later.

3. Document Everything

Beside as patent, keeping a running log or journal of what has been done and when can help you defend your property if it is stolen. This journal should start with the inception of the idea, include every meeting you have, who was invited, and who attended. Using a product with a reliable date and time stamp and having a paper copy of the important moments helps prove ownership of your idea.

4. Talk To An Expert

There are numerous ways to protect your IP, such as patents, trademarks, design rights and trade secrets. It’s about accepting that you need expert guidance early and preparation. What do you need to protect and how? Where, when and what is the timeline for applying in different regions? What do you need to budget for? Talk to the experts so you can understand, prepare and budget.

5. Idea Plus Execution Plus Cash Equals Success

Great ideas are a dime a dozen – at least 10 people are working on your great idea right now! The winner will execute well, getting the idea to market fast along with the operating model needed to provide great customer service. And if you’ve ever tried to start a business, you know your time frame to profit is 3x your original plan. Cash is your life blood extending your timeline to success.

6. Offer The Best Experience In Order To Protect And Profit From Your IP

Besides applying for a patent, I am not sure there is any other good option. Reverse engineering is becoming commonplace, trade secrets are becoming more difficult to protect, and patent trolls are appearing everywhere. I think offering the best experience to your user with your technology is — or should be — the only way to properly profit from it.

7. Move Fast

Depending on your idea, IP protection might be a necessary evil. Necessary because it can provide some protection from others attempting to copy you. At the same time, IP tends to be limited in its application (protects your idea but not variants) and can be expensive to defend. Instead, I always advise that IP is less important than speed to commercialization. Move faster than the competition.

8. Be Fast And Agile

Organize your technology department to be flexible and agile — staying fast and creative will keep you innovating ahead of larger, slower competitors.

9. Use Good Security Measures

At a minimum, all source code should be clearly labeled with a confidentiality notice, warning that unauthorized use or reproduction is prohibited and should be kept on secure systems within your facility. Only allow authorized personnel to access it. When software is deployed into the field, consider using third-party digital encryption solutions to wrap your software in a security envelope.

For further details, you should visit ANTLawyers – IP Services in Vietnam - Smart Platform for Legal, Accounting & Compliance services.

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Which firm is better and cheaper for trademark registration?

As other answers have indicated, you may be incredibly tempted to avoid some costs by completing a trademark registration on your own. The problem that many people face at the very start is that researching existing trademarks is not only an incredibly tedious process, but it’s also easy to make a simple oversight that could lead to inability to complete the trademark. In the end, you can waste a considerable amount of time and money.

 Trademark Consultant in Vietnam

If you are searching for a reputable attorney, then I assume that you recognize the challenges.

A lawyer can help simply the process by:

-Completing thorough research

-Properly filing for registration

-Meeting strict deadlines within the process

-Counseling you about ways to use the trademark

ANTLawyers has access to several trademark attorneys that are incredibly skilled, but also much more affordable than traditional law firm prices. Our business is dedicated to transforming how people obtain legal services. We utilize technology as a platform for communication and easy access. Because our attorneys work for themselves, their rates are incredibly affordable and they offer flexible payment solutions. Let’s get in touch and talk about your options.

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Can an inventor and a company share patent rights?

Patent rights can certainly be shared between a company and an inventor. In fact, patent rights can be shared by any combination of people and/or entities you can imagine. I’ve attempted to answer.

Who initially owns patent rights?

Under United States patent law, the inventor (or inventors) of a patent own the patent rights unless and until they assign the patent to another person or entity. This means that in the absence of a transfer of rights, the inventor/inventors are the sole owner of the patent rights.

How are patent rights transferred?

Patent rights can only be transferred through a written document. In other words, an oral agreement will not transfer any rights. This requirement means that it is critical to create written agreements for all transfers of patent rights.

How can an inventor transfer some rights to a company?

A patent owner (including an inventor) can transfer some or all of the rights that come with a patent. A patent creates a number of rights, and you can transfer some or all of them via a license or assignment of rights. You also can create a contract that is separate from a patent transfer that entitles someone else to a portion of any revenue created through an invention.

Are there risks of joint ownership?

One issue to consider is that having multiple owners of a patent creates a number of potential risks. One of the rights that comes with a patent is the right to prevent other people from making, using, selling, offering to sell, or import the invention. If a patent is owned by multiple parties, ANY of the owners can provide a license to a third party that provides this right. In other words, a single owner could grant rights to a third party to make, use, sell, offer to sell, or import the invention.

Before you decide how patent rights will be owned and before agreeing to any transfers, you should consult with an intellectual property lawyer who can help you create an overall intellectual property plan. If you’re interested in learning how to create an intellectual property plan, you can contact our IP lawyers in Vietnam for advice via email ant@antlawyers.vn or call our office at (+84) 24 32 23 27 71

Source: Quora

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