There are various rationales for patent protection, below are some of the main ones:
·
Patents
give incentives for economically effective Research and Development (R
& D) by giving a monopoly on the patented invention. This
encourages businesses to put millions of pounds into R & D which is
ultimately of benefit society as a whole.
·
Patents
encourage the disclosure of inventions to the public, without the
protection of a patent many inventors would prefer to keep their
inventions secret.
·
In
some industries the cost of actually implementing an invention is
higher than that of the R & D, if there was no way of protecting
the invention then competitors would simply copy the invention and
manufacture it for a fraction of the cost.
·
Due
to the exclusive nature of patents competitors are encouraged to think
up so called 'work around' ideas i.e. they know they cannot use the
original invention due to the patent but how else could they come about
with the same end result?. This brings about the creation of
alternative technologies which but for the patent would not have been
worked upon.
Patent Fees
When you file a
While there is
no such thing as an international patent. There are a number of
developments designed to make it easier to obtain patent protection in
different countries.
The Patent
Cooperation Treaty (PCT) is to eliminate the need for a separate
application and search to be made in each country. By December 2007,
138 countries were signatories to the PCT .
The PCT system reduces the number of searches that need to be done (and paid for), and also has the merit of delaying the decision point at which payment must be made and a choice made as to the countries in which to proceed.
Article kindly supplied by Lawdit
Solicitors, specialists in intellectual property, internet
and e-commerce issues. Lawdit offer discounted fees for all Freelance
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