Patent Points
Here is a quick intro on patents for entrepreneurs thinking of their first patent application. Needless to say this is an incomplete and partial list. You can find more details here.
- To patent an invention, it must have one or more inventive steps, which are not obvious. And this knowledge should not exist anywhere else in the public domain (prior art).
- The core of a patent is the Claims section. If there is a legal battle, the only thing that will matter is the Claims. The rest of the patent document, the description, drawings etc. exist only to support claims, and to present them in context.
- Patents are assets, you can buy/sell it, or fight a legal battle over it.
- For legal purposes granularity of a patent is at the level of individual claims. So eventually a court might revoke some claims, while others continue to be valid. Citing proof of prior art, you can approach the courts to revoke a patent in full or part.
- The patent applicant holds the rights to the patent (typically the company). People who actually invented it are mentioned as inventors.
- After the patent expires that knowledge goes into the public domain for anyone to use and monetize.
- There is no international patent - you will have to patent your innovation and defend it separately in each country you want to protect your IP. PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) helps this process a lot with signatory countries. When people say international patents, they usually mean PCT processes which reduces paperwork. Also the date of first filing is taken as priority date.
- The intention of patents is to reward innovators, by offering them a window of time during which they enjoy the monopoly to monetize their invention.
- The large collection of patent documents serves as a reference of prior art, along with other public domain literature.
- If you can, and want to keep something a closely guarded secret for a period beyond what patenting affords you, then it might be better not to patent it. Like the recipe of coca cola