Register a patent: How to protect your invention

Register a patent: 4 important tips

• Keep the invention secret until registration
• Inform about annual costs and be prepared to carry them
• Documents must be submitted to the Patent Office without error / consult experts
• Also think about international patents

Register a patent: Introduction

The patent is the most widely used industrial property rights for inventions, Patents may be issued after the grant up to 20 years to protect the invention and secure as the technical novelty the patentee the sole right to recovery.

To register for a patent, you must three criteria be fulfilled:

• It must become the state of registration in your invention to act a novelty, which does not yet correspond to the current zeitgeist and has not been presented anywhere.
• In the second point, this inventive step must also be taken before the Patent Office be clearly defined and last but not least the idea should be one industrial applicability own, otherwise there is no basis for a patent application.

Register a patent: documents for the patent application

• Technical explanation of the invention
• claims
• Summary of the business idea
• Specifying a name for the idea
• If necessary, a drawing

Register a patent: 4 important tips

Keep the invention a secret

Sounds banal and can still be challenging. So that you can successfully complete the registration with the Patent Office, may nobody else informed about this before issuing his.

Of course you can talk about the idea in the family, but it should be clear that the people you teach are committed to secrecy. If you talk to a third party about the invention, it's best to use it Confidentiality Form.

Keep an eye on annual costs

The patent application to the Patent Office is one thing, but it does not help you a little if you lose the patent after a short time, because you the annual fees do not pay can or want.

In Germany alone, you pay a fee to the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) for granting the patent Registration fee of 40 euros, This will give you 10 claims. Join in 300 euros for the search fee and 150 euros as exam fee, So far so good. But what are the costs for you in the years to come? The following table clarifies you.

Source: "Legal-Patent.com"

Submit documents completely and correctly

Errors in the documents for registration with the Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) can subsequently not corrected become. Not even obvious mistakes in the spelling you can change after the grant. The Problem: If your invention is not specifically listed correctly, the patent application can not protect you well from impersonators. So take one anyway Patent attorney, with whom you together make the patent application at the DPMA.

International patents

Protecting your invention with only a German patent can prove risky, as you risk finding imitators abroad due to the lack of industrial protection.

The Application for international patents also takes place at the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA). There is a so-called "Patent Cooperation Treaty? (PCT), with theProtection in all participating countries can be applied for. The procedure begins with the international review and then passes to the German patent and its examination.

Register a patent: utility model as a cheaper alternative

• A utility model will too small patent called, because it does not bring such far-reaching conditions and costs. In a utility model, the invention not checked for novelty, only the formalities must be correct.
• Here you pay for the Registration 30 euros and there is no annual follow-up fee, as in the patent, but a maintenance fee payable after three (210 euros), six (350 euros) and eight years (530 euros).
• The utility model is suitable rather for a smaller inventionthat do not need such strict protection.

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