At Which Stage Should I Apply for a Patent?
FollowOver the years I have noticed that inventors seek patent filing related advice at various stages of the inventing process. At one extreme, I have seen inventors exploring the option of filing a patent application at an ideation stage. On the other hand, I have also come across inventors who explore the patent filing option after bringing the invention to public domain. Given the wide gap between the two extremes, I intend to provide some information through this article to help inventors decide an ideal time to apply for a patent.
Before we dive right into the question of interest, let us try to understand the concept behind the patent system. The patent system is essentially designed to encourage advancement in science and technology. To provide such an encouragement, respective countries provide monopoly right over the patent invention for a limited period of time, to the inventors or the assignees of the patent. In return, the patent office expects the applicant of a patent to disclose information about the invention for which patent protection is sought, to an extent that a person with ordinary skill in the technology, to which the proposed invention relates, can use the provided information to make and use the proposed invention. This disclosure of information to the public would ideally enable others to explore improvements over existing technology, and thereby lead to advancement in science and technology.
The disclosure of information discussed above is one of the requirements, which has to be fulfilled to have a patent granted. Hence, one of the important questions that inventors should ask themselves is whether they have sufficient information about the invention to enable a person skilled in the technology to which the invention relates, to make and use the proposed invention. If sufficient information is available, then the time might be right to apply for a patent. One the other hand, if sufficient information is not available, then the inventor should ideally work towards gathering/generating such information, so that the same can be provided in the patent application.
Generally the issue of not having sufficient information arises when option of patenting is explored at an ideation stage of the invention or at initial stages of research. At this stage, when it is realized that sufficient information is not available, provisional application filing is explored by inventors. There is a general misconception that one need not provide information that enables the invention, in the provisional application. It should be noted that the requirement of providing adequate information hold good for a provisional application, as it does for a complete patent application. I recommend reading our article “What are the different patent filing options?” to get a better understanding of provisional and complete application.
I would not suggest filing a provisional application, as opposed to a complete application, for the lack of adequate information. Instead, I would suggest filing a provisional application if an inventor does not have adequate funds to hire a professional to draft a patent specification or does not have adequate time to have a complete patent specification drafted. Further, in some countries, there is a substantial difference in the government fee that is charged for a provisional and a complete patent application. Hence, one might wish to file a provisional application, and thereafter within 12 months file a complete patent application.
Another important point to be notes is that, in some countries, such as India, the inventors loose the right to file a patent application if the proposed invention is made public before applying for a patent. On the other hand, US provides a time period of 12 months to file a patent application after the proposed invention is made public. Hence, if the inventor wishes to file patent applications in multiple countries, it is advisable to explore the option of filing the patent application before the invention is made public.
I hope the points discussed in this article will help you in deciding the right time to apply for a patent, given the various constraints you might have.
You may also read our articles listed below, to gain more knowledge about patents:
- Can I apply for a patent before creating a prototype?
- Should I apply for a patent in the name of my company or in my name?
- Should an inventor take professional help to draft and file patent applications?
- Should I apply for a patent before publishing my invention?
- Can the details of my invention disclosed in the patent application be maintained as a secret?
- Can publicly disclosed inventions be patented in India?
Please feel free to reach us at Contact us if you have any queries relating to patents.
Thanks,
Team InvnTree
USPTO – Reexamination Request – Update – August 10th to August 16th, 2011
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), on a weekly basis, publishes information corresponding to reexamination requests received by them.
InvnTree has compiled in a spreadsheet, the information published by the USPTO and additional information about the patents for which reexamination requests have been filed.
The current compilation provides updates for the period of August 10th to August 16th 2011. The compilation can be accessed below or downloaded here
We provide reexamination support services .
Feel free to check our patent services page to find out if we can cater to your patent requirements . You can also contact or ask us a question and have it answered within 24 hours.
Best regards – Team InvnTree
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Patent Office India – Published Patent Information – August 12th, 2011
Patent office india, indian patent officePatent Office in India publishes patent information on a weekly basis (on Friday each week). This is a public notification, enabling you to take appropriate action if desired.
The publication includes published patent applications and granted patents, among other information, for the week of August 12th, 2011.
You may go through this publication, and if you find patent information that has an impact on your business, then you may take appropriate actions, such as:
1. File pre-grant opposition on published patent applications
2. File post-grant opposition on granted patents
Data sourced from Indian Patent Office by Team InvnTree. The data can be downloaded here and can also be accessed below.
I hope you find this data helpful. Check our patent services page to find out if we cater to your patent requirements . Also, feel free to contact us or ask us a question and have it answered within 24 hours.
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How can I find out if my invention has already been invented?
This question may get asked when,
Researchers, before investing their time and money, would want to know, if it’s worthwhile to research on a product. They would want to find out, what kind of similar products exists in the market and what technological improvements can be made to those products.
For any new technological improvements/inventions, inventors may want to patent their invention. Before starting the process of patenting, inventors would want to access their chances of patentability of the invention. In order to access the patentability of an invention, a search to identify prior art is required.
When a product is to be launched into the market, to avoid infringement, it is advisable to determine freedom to operate for the product in question. In order to determine Freedom to operate, a search of patent documents of the jurisdiction in question is to be conducted. To know more about freedom to operate, you can go through our article about “Freedom to Operate”
A search for prior art can be conducted on the internet using search engines. This strategy may uncover some data, but will not always uncover very relevant data. This is owing to the fact that patent documents and publications may not have been indexed in search engines. Search strategies involved in searching of relevant patent and non patent data requires considerable skill and technique. To know more about search strategies and techniques to be adopted, you can read our article “How to conduct a patent search”
Another strategy to be adopted is to Search for non patent literature. Searching of non patent literature can aid in finding out if a similar invention exists. Searching of non patent literature be conducted using databases such as IEEE, Science Direct, IPmenu which hold enormous amount of data relating to non patent literature. Searching of such non patent literature data can uncover similar technology and would help in taking an informed decision regarding the invention. If a similar technology exists in non patent literature, it will affect the patentability of the invention, but it will have no bearing on the freedom to operate for a product, as non patent literature does not provide rights to the owner of that publication from stopping others from making and selling of those products.Note that if a publication about an invention exists in non patent literature, it does not mean that the owners would not have sought patent protection as well. It is advisable to cross check patent data as well before taking a decision about Freedom to operate.
Another strategy to be adopted is to search patent literature. Searching of patent literature can be conducted using various free and paid patent databases. It is important to know a few facts about patents.
Patents are jurisdiction specific. It means that to obtain patent protection, one has to file for patents in all the jurisdictions one wishes to obtain protection.
While determining freedom to operate for a specific country, only patent documents from that jurisdiction are to be considered.
To determine the patentability of an invention, one needs to consider relevant patent documents from all jurisdictions.
I hope you find this article helpful. Check our patent services page to find out if we can cater to your patent requirements. Also feel free to contact us or ask us a question and have it answered within 24 hours.
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USPTO – Reexamination Request – Update – July 27th 2011 to Aug 9th, 2011
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), on a weekly basis, publishes information corresponding to reexamination requests received by them.
InvnTree has compiled in a spreadsheet, the information published by the USPTO and additional information about the patents for which reexamination requests have been filed.
The current compilation provides updates for the period of July 27th to August 9th 2011. The compilation can be accessed below or downloaded here
We provide reexamination support services .
Feel free to check our patent services page to find out if we can cater to your patent requirements . You can also contact or ask us a question and have it answered within 24 hours.
Best regards – Team InvnTree
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License
Yahoo’s Patenting Trends
Business analysts and strategists are often found to rely on data to derive trends, which are used in gaining insight and facilitating decision making. With respect to technology companies, among various types of data used for deriving trends, patent related data is considered to be substantially important.
Patenting trends are found to provide insight into market entry strategies, product strategies, R&D efforts, IP strategies and acquisitions, among other insights.
Our team, out of curiosity, tries to identify macro level trends of various companies, and exhibits these trends through reports. We had previously published an article on Google’s patenting trends, and this article focus is on Yahoo’s patenting trends. The complete report can be downloaded here.
Theis article aims at providing a birds eye view of Yahoo’s patenting trend.
The patenting trends illustrated in this post are listed below:
- Year wise patent filing trend
- Country wise patent filing trend
- Year wise patent filing trend in top 10 countries
- Top 20 IPC classes
- Year wise patent filing trend for top 20 IPC class
- Top 25 successful inventors
Year Wise Patent Filing Trend
The graph illustrates number of patent applications filed by Yahoo on a yearly basis.
As seen in the graph, the rate of filling patent applications has been increasing over the years. Specifically, there has been a sharp increase in the number of applications filed on 2006. In 2006, there has been a 100% increase in the applications filed when compared with the year 2005.
Further, the number of patent applications filed appears to decline towards the year 2011. However, such an indication can be misleading because the patent applications get published after 18 months from their priority date (Priority date is the date of filing the first patent application, among several patent applications, which may have been filed by the applicants for the same invention in different countries). Hence, the patent applications having their priority date in 2010 or 2011 might be awaiting publication. Therefore, the number of applications filed in the year 2010 and 2011 might be more than what is indicated in this graph.
It shall be further noted that, the number of patent applications filed by Yahoo in each of the years might be more than what is illustrated in this graph. The reason for the same is, one patent application is considered per patent family. A patent family is a set of patents/patent applications filed in various countries to protect a single invention (same set of inventors).
Data used to derive this trend can be found in this downloadable report.
Country Wise Patent Filing Trend
The graph illustrates the number of patent applications filled in various countries. Note that all patent application related to a patent family are considered for plotting this graph.
As expected, US and WIPO are the top two jurisdictions in which maximum number of patent applications have been filed.
Further, India and Brazil, which are developing countries also find a spot in top 17 countries in which Yahoo has filed patent applications. Also, 9 non English speaking countries make to the top 17.
Another noticeable observation is the difference in the number of applications filed in the top 1 (US) and top 2 (Japan, WIPO is not a country) country. Yahoo has filed 671% more applications in US when compared to Japan. This huge difference may indicate, among other indications, importance of US as a market to Yahoo, and strong belief in IP enforcement system in US.
Data used to derive this trend can be found in this downloadable report.
Year Wise Patent Filing Trend in Top 10 countries
This graph illustrates the number of patent applications filed in respective countries over a period of time.
One of the interesting observations is the fact that Yahoo was founded in the year 1995. However, they have patents assigned to them much before that. Such patents might have been acquired by Yahoo.
Further, Yahoo seems to have initiated seeking patent protection outside US after 3 years (1998) since it was founded. Furthermore, it may be observed that patent filing in Japan, where Yahoo has filed the highest number of patent applications after US, seems to have gained traction in the year 2007.
Another interesting observation is absence of patent filing in Australia in the years 2004 and 2005.
Data used to derive this trend can be found in this downloadable report.
Top 20 IPC Codes
Known fact that information retrieval and database structures is the most focused upon area by companies operating in internet search engine domain. Yahoo being one of the dominant players in this field, as expected has substantial IP built in the information retrieval and database structures technology, which is represented by IPC code G06F17/30.
Data used to derive this trend can be found in this downloadable report.
Year wise patent filing trend for top 20 IPC class
Data used to derive this trend can be found in this downloadable report.
Top 25 Successful Inventors
Inventors from varies parts of the world are found in this list. Top 25 inventors of yahoo includes “del.icio.us” creator Joshua Schachter. Further, 9 out of 25 inventors appear to be of Indian origin.
Data used to derive this trend can be found in this downloadable report.
In addition to the above macro level trends, various other macro and micro level trends can be derived to serve various analytical objectives.
We hope you found this report useful. We offer various patent intelligence services, such as patent landscape study, competitor portfolio study, technology monitoring services and competitor monitoring service to facilitate decision making.
You may write to us at [email protected] to find out how we can customize our services for catering to your requirements.
Thank you,
Team InvnTree
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Patent Office India – Published Patent Information – August 5th, 2011
Patent office india, indian patent office, patent search indiaPatent Office in India publishes patent information on a weekly basis (on Friday each week). This is a public notification, enabling you to take appropriate action if desired.
The publication includes published patent applications and granted patents, among other information, for the week of August 5th, 2011.
You may go through this publication, and if you find patent information that has an impact on your business, then you may take appropriate actions, such as:
File pre-grant opposition on published patent applications
File post-grant opposition on granted patents
Data sourced from Indian Patent Office by Team InvnTree. The data can be downloaded here and can also be accessed below.
I hope you find this data helpful. Check our patent services page to find out if we cater to your patent requirements . Also, feel free to contact us or ask us a question and have it answered within 24 hours.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License
Patent Office India – Published Patent Information – July 29th, 2011
Patent Office in India publishes patent information on a weekly basis (on Friday each week). This is a public notification, enabling you to take appropriate action if desired.
The publication includes published patent applications and granted patents, among other information, for the week of July 29th, 2011.
You may go through this publication, and if you find patent information that has an impact on your business, then you may take appropriate actions, such as:
File pre-grant opposition on published patent applications
File post-grant opposition on granted patents
Data sourced from Indian Patent Office by Team InvnTree. The data can be downloaded here and can also be accessed below.
I hope you find this data helpful. Check our patent services page to find out if we cater to your patent requirements. Also, feel free to contact us or ask us a question and have it answered within 24 hours.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License
Outsourcing Preparation of Patent Drawings
One of the important tasks involved in preparing a patent specification is creating drawings. Generally, drawings, which illustrate, systems related to software inventions and flowcharts are relatively easy to prepare and are less time consuming. However, preparation of drawings, which have to illustrate apparatus, devices and parts of tangible equipments are often time consuming and require skills corresponding to using more advanced sketching/designing tools.
In light of the time consuming and skill intensive nature of work involved in patent drawing preparation, outsourcing such tasks to companies that specialize in them has gained popularity among patent practitioners.
I have often observed that, generally, outsourcing of patent drawing preparation occurs in the following scenarios:
- Inventors are unable to provide line drawings, which can be used in a patent specification
- Inventors provide photographs of a prototype or a hand made sketch
- The drawings have to be made using commercially available designing software
- When a patent attorney neither has a dedicated draftsperson who can prepare complex patent drawings, nor has sufficient bandwidth to spare time for preparing complex patent drawings
In my opinion, one should have the following skills to prepare illustrations, which can be used in patent specifications:
- Excellent working knowledge of the tools used for preparing patent drawings
- The illustrators should preferable be engineers, as such illustrators are generally familiar with the technology for which drawings have to be prepared
- Good understanding of USPTO and PCT guidelines for patent drawings
- Good understanding of how drawings will be referred to in the detailed description
In light of the skill set desired for preparing patent illustrations and the effort required for such tasks, outsourcing patent illustration preparation is commonly outsourced.
We work on such patent illustration projects frequently. To know more about ther service we offer and fee for the same, contact us at [email protected] or fill in this form.
Regards,
Team InvnTree
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Patent Office India – Published Patent Information – July 1st, 2011 – InvnTree
Patent Office in India publishes patent information on a weekly basis (on Friday each week). This is a public notification, enabling you to take appropriate action if desired.
The publication includes published patent applications and granted patents, among other information, for the week of July 1st, 2011.
You may go through this publication, and if you find patent information that has an impact on your business, then you may take appropriate actions, such as:
- File pre-grant opposition on published patent applications
- File post-grant opposition on granted patents
Data sourced from Indian Patent Office by Team InvnTree. The data can be downloaded here and can also be accessed below.
I hope you find this data helpful. Check our patent services page to find out if we cater to your patent requirements . Also, feel free to contact us or ask us a question and have it answered within 24 hours.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported LicensePatent office india published patent information – july 1st, 2011 – invn tree
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