Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) is a multilateral treaty. This became effective in 1978 and it is established to eliminate some of the duplication involved when obtaining patent protection for the same invention in several countries. Patent Cooperation Treaty has more than 40 nations as signatories. The Patent Cooperation Treaty makes it possible to file and prosecute a single international application, which has the same effect as filing a separate application in each Patent Cooperation Treaty nation that the inventor designates at the time of filing the application. The Patent Cooperation Treaty neither creates an international patent nor changes the substantive requirements of patentability in any individual Patent Cooperation Treaty nation (including the US).
patent application
Patent attorney serves as counsels to corporations or individuals. Patent attorney helps determine if the invention is patentable. Patent attorney does this by evaluating the invention. Depending on the result of the evaluation, patent attorney advises the client as to whether a patent application should be filed on the invention. During the evaluation phase, patent attorney conduct in-depth investigation into the technical field involved, including study of the closest prior patents and references and a comparison with the invention to identify differences.
The Patent Trademark Office carefully reviews the application in order to determine the invention’s patentability. Upon submission of a patent application to the Patent Trademark Office an Examiner reviews the application and prepares an opinion as to whether the application complies with the Patent Trademark Office applicable rules and regulations, and whether the invention is indeed “patentable.”
The patent cost can be very high for some people which the U.S. Patent Trademark Office charges a minimum of about $4,000 over the life of the patent. A patent application submitted to Patent Trademark Office must contain: (1) a written description of the invention; and (2) claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the invention.
The Patent and Trademark Office examiner, after the patent application has been filed with the Patent and Trademark Office, carefully reviews the application in order to determine the invention’s patentability. There is only one Patent and Trademark Office in the U.S. It is located in Arlington, Virginia, close to Washington, DC.
Patent protection provides security to the patent applicant against patent infringement. Patent infringement would occur if someone made, used or sold your patented door lock without your permission in a country that has granted you a patent, during the term of the patent.
Your first step when you get a patent idea is using free patent searches to know if there are related inventions out there and to see if you can protect your idea. This is important due to the following:
1) Free patent searches documents your idea and serves as a record of invention date.
2) Free patent searches prevent you wasting time on developing an idea that already exists.
Inventor need not solicit the help of a patent counsel to conduct a free patent searches. They can do the work themselves and search for free patent searches sites. For an inventor to be able to start his or her own Free patent searches, he or she needs to access the U.S. Patent Office Database at http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html.
The U.S. Patent office is tasked with carefully reviewing patent application in order to determine the invention’s patentability. The examination process usually takes 12 to 18 months. The U.S. Patent Office will not tell you if your invention has already been invented by someone else unless you apply for a patent. The U.S. Patent Office examiners only verify that the description and claims per description by their inventors are new, unique, and not obvious to the U.S. Patent Office. They could not make confirmation with regards to the usefulness or profitability of the invention.
Patent lawyers are qualified attorney-at-law and are technically trained, usuallyhaving a degreein engineering or in one or more of the sciences. Patent lawyers provide clients with highly specialized support in all areas of patent law, including the application work and preparation for patents, patent licensing and patent infringement litigation (at both the trial court and appellate levels). Patent lawyers are skilled and experienced in the procedures of the U.S. Patent. Patent lawyers devote a majority of their practice to patent law. Practicing lawyers are skilled and experienced in the areas of patent application work, litigation, and counseling services. Patent lawyers promote the advantages realized by clients for patent application work, litigation, and counseling services.
Search patent is one of the most basic thing an inventor has to do when applying for patent. Search patent enables the inventor to know if his invention is already patented or not. Search patent can determine if the proposed invention merits the patentability as set by the statutory conditions.
The most basic place to do search patent is accessing database of the US Patent and Trademark Office worldwide. There are designated patent libraries which one can use too. During search patent, an inventor should compare a collection of prior patents, printed publications, journals or other technical articles with the invention. These references serve as basis for determining the patentability of an invention. But before doing so, he or she must examine each of these “references” in order to ensure that they are valid.
There are some noteworthy patent info that you need to keep in mind before filing for a patent application. A patent info you need to know is that patent application has two primary sections: the specification and the claims. The specification is essentially a detailed patent info description of the invention, including drawings if necessary, showing what the invention does, how it works, and disclosing its advantages over prior art. The description of the invention must meet certain legal requirements, including that it: (a) be thorough enough to allow a person skilled in the invention’s field of technology to make and use the invention, (b) identify the invention’s best mode of operation, and (c) provide a basis for and explanation of the terminology that is used in the following claims.
