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Current location: Home » Inventors » Patenting
For specific advice on a particular invention, please use the enquiry form provided (please do not disclose any confidential information at this stage).
Once granted to an inventor for an invention, a patent gives the inventor the right to stop other people from making, using or selling the invention without permission from the inventor. A granted patent is the property of the inventor, and can be bought, sold, rented or hired. Patents have geographical boundaries; e.g. UK Patents only provide holders with rights in the UK
In general, patents cover, how things work, what they do, how they do it and how they are made.
To be patentable an invention must meet a number of fundamental criteria:
- It must be novel and not have been disclosed anywhere in public before the date on which an application for a patent is filed. Such prior disclosure, in whatever form can result in the patent application being rejected. Any disclosure must therefore be made only under conditions of strict confidence.
- It must involve an inventive step.
- It must be capable of being made or used..
An invention cannot be patented if it is one of the following:
- a theory
- a discovery
- a literary or artistic work
- a computer program
- a method of playing a game
The timing of a patent application is crucial. Priority over other parties can be established by an early filing of an invention, but later changes in the invention (that may be important) will require the application to be re-filed, resulting in the 'priority date' being lost.
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