Preliminary Commercial Assessment

We will provide a critical appraisal of your idea/invention and this will assess its viability and commercial potential. Constructive, creative, and sometimes destructive, comments, will be made, in order to give you useful and intelligent feedback so that you stand the best chance of success, or are advised early on, to avoid wasting time, effort and money.

Patenting

If assessment shows that it is worth pursuing further, protection of the invention by filing a patent application using our patenting service is essential. A patent application is a document which contains a technical description of an invention, in words and diagrams (known as the specification) written so that an expert in the field of the invention can reproduce it.

The specification is filed, in the name of the Applicant, at the Intellectual Property Office, and is given a Priority Date and a Reference Number and, once filed, causes a metaphorical "clock" to start ticking, in that, at the very latest, i.e. after 12 months have elapsed since the Priority Date, certain decisions have to be made as to whether or not the application is to go forward for Examination, Publication and, hopefully, Grant.

At this "year up since first filing", time, the Applicant also has to decide whether or not he or she, wishes to obtain international patent protection, for which, official fees have to be paid.

A UK patent application establishes, for the inventor, certain rights in relation to patent protection abroad, provided that these rights are taken up within one year from the date of first filing the application in the UK.

Once a patent application has been filed, the inventor can continue to exploit the invention knowing that there is potential for world-wide patent protection. If, by the end of the year since first filing the application, things have not progressed sufficiently, the application can be left to "die in the system" and it will remain secret, provided that a request for a Preliminary Examination and Search has not been made in the twelve months measured from the Priority date for the patent application. If such request has been made, the patent application will be published 18 months from the priority date, unless a request to prevent publication is made to the Intellectual Property Office according to its rules.

Alternatively, if things have progressed, it may be worth paying for patent protection in various countries. The choice, and number, of countries, will be dictated by the nature of your invention and by how much you can afford. If you have a "backer", they may be prepared to bear the cost, in return for being able to manufacture, sell, and use, the invention, under license from you. A granted UK patent can remain in force for up to twenty years, provided that annual renewal fees are paid.

It is important to note that even when you obtain a Patent on an invention, as much as four and a half years since filing the first application, someone could challenge it!

HOWEVER, IT SHOULD ALWAYS BE REMEMBERED THAT, WITHOUT A PATENT APPLICATION ON FILE AT THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE, YOU HAVE NO OFFICIAL PROTECTION FOR YOUR INVENTION. THE FILED APPLICATION SHOULD THUS BE CONSIDERED AS AN ESSENTIAL EXPEDIENT WHILST YOU ARE COMMUNICATING WITH THIRD PARTIES TO GAIN INTEREST IN YOUR INVENTION.