A patent is a proprietary right granted by a sovereign authority to an inventor thereby protecting an invention in any technical field. A patent does not protect an idea, but a concrete solution to a technical problem.
In order to obtain patent protection, an invention in any technical field must meet the following conditions:
- that is new, i.e. it must not be displayed to the public in any way, anywhere in the world, before submitting the application for protection
- to have an inventive level, i.e. it must not arise from the state of the art in an obvious way for a person skilled in a particular field
- to be industrially applicable, i.e. that it can be applied in practice
Apart from these conditions, it is important that your invention belongs to a category which is patentable i.e. subject to patent protection. Namely, certain inventions do not have this capacity and therefore cannot acquire patent protection. Thus, according to positive legal regulations, the following inventions cannot be protected by a patent:
- discoveries, scientific theories and mathematic methods
- aesthetic creations
- plans, rules and procedures for performing intellectual activities, for playing games or for performing business
- displaying information
- computer programs (software)
- inventions of animal and plant species as such and essentially biological processes for obtaining plants and animals
- the human body and the mere discovery of some of its elements (e.g. a section of a gene)
- diagnostic and surgical procedures, as well as treatment procedures that are applied directly to the human or animal body
- inventions contrary to public order or morality (cloning, genetic modifications)
So, if your invention is new in any technical field, has an inventive level and can be applied in industrial production, and does not relate to any of the above, which could deprive it of patent protection, it is extremely important to protect it with a patent. Namely, legal protection by a patent means that the invention may not be commercially produced, used, put on the market or sold without the consent of its owner.
The owner of a patent has the right to decide who can and who cannot use his invention for the duration of protection in a certain territory. The patent owner may give a license to other persons to use a particular invention under mutually agreed terms.
The owner of a patent may also transfer the right to a third party who becomes its new owner. After the expiration of the right or the cessation of its maintenance, the protection ceases and the invention becomes a public good. This means that the patent owner no longer has the exclusive right to the invention, which now becomes available for commercial exploitation.
It is important to keep in mind that a patent lasts for 20 years from the filing date the patent application and during that time it provides its owner with a monopoly over that invention. This is the reason why inventions are protected by a patent, its owner is given the exclusive right to use it for a period of 20 years, with the possibility to prohibit unauthorized use of his invention to any third party in the same period of time.
Finally, it should be borne in mind that patents have territorial validity, i.e. that they are valid only in a certain territory.
If you want to claim the exclusive right to your invention in any technical field by registering it, or if you want to extend the protection to the territories of some other countries, we will be happy to assist you before the competent Intellectual Property Office or European Patent Office (EPO).