Out of the 4 Intellectual Property Rights i.e. Patent, Copyright, Trademark and Trade Secrets, Patents are considered to be the most powerful and helpful when it comes to protecting your rights and inventions. It takes a lot of time and effort for an invention and it becomes absolutely necessary to protect it from unauthorised access and infringements. Patents are one of the most widely applied Intellectual Property in India as the infringement cases are higher here. Patent Attorney in India takes care of all the process related to filing and allocating patents in India. Starting from small businesses, entrepreneurs to large businesses, everybody is filing patents these days to save their valuable inventions and ideas.
Reasons for filing patents
As discussed earlier, there can be several reasons for taking Intellectual property rights on your inventions and filing for patents have specific reasons as well. When it comes to small businesses and Entrepreneurs, the most important thing in their business is time and money. They do have enough money as startups and this is the reason they do want to take any chances when it comes to protecting their ideas and innovations. They are ready to invest on the initial cost of the patenting process as they are assured that their idea would be safe for the next 20 years from the date of filing a patent.
When it comes to already established businesses, they are equally or rather more concerned for protecting their ideas. They already have a name in the market and customers and investors recognise them from their brand names. Hence, they just cannot take any risk with their existing business which is run on their innovative ideas. Since they are financially stable, they have absolutely no problems in paying the fees to the Patent Attorney in India and get the process done for themselves. This is how they keep their ideas safe from infringements and patenting directly or indirectly builds a positive image of the brands.
Process to file a patent
There is a standard process followed in filing and allocation of patents which is in accordance with the WIPO also called as World Intellectual Property Organisation. It is not an easy and simple process but requires some extra time and effort from the date of filing to the date when it is allocated to you. Patents are valid for a period of 20 years from the date of filing, which is a standard duration followed in almost all the countries. The fee structure of the whole process differs in different countries and is decided by the patent attorney. Patents can be taken for your own countries and also can be taken for selected countries if you think your business has a reach worldwide.
Some patents requires you to disclose your ideas to the professionals before you protect them while in most of the cases, you need not to disclose it. Even disclosing your ideas before taking patents is not unsafe as the professionals are bound by the Non Disclosure Agreement which prevents them to further disclose your ideas to other businesses or people.
When should you file a patent
There is no particular time decided about filing a patent. From even before starting a business to a 20 years old business, filing a patent is allowed by a court of law. You can file a patent whenever you want depending upon your requirements such as finances, nature of business and time but it is always advisable to file a patent as soon as you come up with an innovative idea and get to know that your idea is actually unique.
Initial stages of your business might not allow you to spend money on patents but it is assured that each and every penny you spend on patents is always worth. Some people hesitate to go for the patents due to its high cost and time involved while some who know its benefits, go for it directly. There is a process where you can give provisional applications if you are not ready with the invention which you want to protect. After this, you are alloted 12 months of time to get ready with the complete process and make up your mind if you want to continue with the entire process or not.
It is always advisable to go for the process as soon as the duration of provisional application is over as the researcher who is doing research on the same subject as yours might file a patent before you and all your efforts will go in vain.