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PATENT
A patent is a right granted to the owner of an
invention that prevents others from making, using,
importing or selling the invention without his
permission.
A patentable invention can be a product or a process
that gives a new technical solution to a problem. It
can also be a new method of doing things, the
composition of a new product, or a technical
improvement on how certain objects work.
Once it is granted, its term of a patent is 20 years
from the Date of Filing, subject to the payment of
annual renewal fees.
THE BENEFITS OF REGISTERING A
PATENT
Once you register a patent, apart from using the patent
to prevent others from exploiting your invention, you can
employ it to raise funds for your business, license it to
third parties for commercial returns or sell the patented
invention.
INVENTIONS
involves the discovery of any new and useful process,
machine, [article of] manufacture, or composition of
matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof.
Two criteria that make sure it is truly an
invention:
Novelty an invention is a novel only if it has not
previously been invented by someone else.
Nonobviousness a solution to a problem that is obvious
to another specialist in the appropriate area cannot be
patented. There is no widely accepted definition of, or
test for, obviousness, which is why many court cases to
invalidate patents focus on challenging the obviousness of
the invention.
For an invention to be patentable, it must, in
general, satisfy three key criteria:
1. New The invention should not be publicly known in any way,
anywhere in the world.
Owners of inventions should be careful to keep the invention secret
until a patent application has been successfully made. If the idea has
already been talked about, commercially exploited, advertised or
demonstrated, then the novelty of the invention may be
compromised.
If the invention needs to be disclosed to a third party before a
patent application has been made, a non-disclosure agreement
should be drawn up.
Once a Date of Filing has been obtained for the patent application,
the invention can claim a "Patent Pending" status and the applicant
can proceed to disclose the invention as indicated in the patent
application to interested parties. As part of the application process,
the patent application will be published after 18 months and if the
statutory requirements are met. Once published, details of the
invention will be made available for public inspection.
2. Inventive step The invention must be something that
represents an improvement over any existing product or
process that is already available.
The improvement must not be obvious to someone with
technical skills or knowledge in the inventions particular
field. If an invention is new yet obvious to a person skilled in
the art, the invention would not fulfil the inventive step
requirement.