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SOME ADVICE FOR INVENTORS
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| 1. |
Keep
a signed and dated record of your ideas/inventions. This record
can be constantly added to, and will therefore help you in the
improvement, protection, and development, of your ideas/inventions. |
| 2. |
Do
not tell anyone about your idea/invention until you have obtained
professional guidance, e.g. from us. Always ensure that you have
written proof, in the form of a signed confidential undertaking,
from any third party, defining their obligations to you concerning
your idea/invention, before divulging any information about it
to them, and ideally, have a patent application describing
the idea/invention prepared and filed beforehand. It is important
to appreciate that if you make your idea or invention public, you
will not be able, subsequently, to protect it by means of a filed
patent application.
Please refer to Case
Study 3 which represents a good example of why filing a patent
application before divulging any information about your idea/invention
to a third party, is so important and useful. |
| 3. |
Try
to be very realistic about your chances of success, and research
the subject matter relating to your idea/invention, thoroughly
(we can do this with you/for you) before embarking on a route
towards excessive expenditure. |
In order
to comply with UK Patent Law, six weeks have to elapse, after filing a
patent application in the UK, before a patent application on the same invention
can be filed abroad. It is advisable to file a UK patent application before
any disclosure about the associated invention is made to third parties,
and, notwithstanding the existence of a filed patent application, disclosure
should always be preceded by the signing of a written confidentiality undertaking
by those to whom disclosure of details of the invention is to be made.
© Dr
Brian R. A. Wybrow CSci, C.CHEM, MRSC; Ph.D. (Lond.)
Member of the Institute of Patentees and Inventors
Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry
Member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining
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