Patents in Business @ The Mitchell
What is a patent?
A patent is a legal document granted by a patenting authority to an inventor or applicant, giving them the exclusive right to stop others from making, using or selling their invention without their permission. In the United Kingdom, this is done through the UK Intellectual Property Office.
Patents are granted for a fixed period of time (usually 20 years).
Patents are territorial rights. A UK Patent will only give the holder rights within the United Kingdom and rights to stop others from importing the patented products into the United Kingdom.
For protection in Europe you can apply to the European Patent Office(EPO) and further afield to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
Patents protect technology. For a patent to be granted, the technology or process should fulfil the following conditions:
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novelty, that is, not be previously known
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involve an inventive step
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be capable of industrial application
When a patent is granted it becomes like any other business asset. Patents can be bought, sold, mortgaged, or licensed to others.
More than 1 million new patents are published every year, making searching for them a difficult task.
Read about searching for patents
or
try this factsheet fom COBRA(Complete Business Reference Adviser).
BIF 094 How to Apply for a Patent
COBRA (Complete Business Reference Adviser) can be accessed for free from any PC within the library network and library members can also access this resource from home by entering the first 10 characters of their library card into the login box.
For more information, please contact:
Business @ The Mitchell
North Street
Glasgow
G3 7DN
Phone: 0141 287 2904
Fax: 0141 287 2912
Email:businessinfo@glasgow.gov.uk