The terrible word "Patent". Path from idea to patented development

I am sure that many people have the word “patent” associated with large corporations and their cockroaches in their heads. At the same time, many habrauds in the garage had some tricky thing lying around that was waiting for its time to be put into production. And someone, perhaps, the production has already begun. In both cases, it is worth thinking about protecting intellectual property.
The goal of this article is to show the least laborious way from an idea to a patented development, as well as to explain the importance of protecting your idea from plagiarism. For a start, I will try to dispel several myths that often occur.

Myths about patenting

Patent - for large companies. The small enterprise does not need it.


Most small businesses are built around a single development. At the same time, large companies have a whole set of developments that they actively defend, forming their patent portfolio. Moreover, the development of strategies for managing this patent portfolio is not a simple matter and is considered an art form. And what will happen if competitors will produce products similar to yours that are not protected? If we are talking about a large enterprise, you will suffer losses, but, most likely, you will remain “afloat”, because you have a “rear” in the form of other developments. And if we are talking about a small enterprise, then you are likely to lose a significant market share and, possibly, even go bankrupt, if you do not take any additional steps to improve the products. After all, a patent protects your products not only from direct copying, but also copying in the event that a competitor completes your development.
An example from my practice : the inventor of a children's playpen, which can be used in travels, managed to get a patent for his development before a large corporation, eventually concluded a supply agreement with them and increased the annual profit of his company by several orders of magnitude. If a patent had not been received on time, a large corporation could have produced such an arena on its own.
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Only fundamentally new technologies need protection.

Even minor changes to a known technical solution can be a source of profit. Moreover, if the changes are significant to copy them, most likely, it will be difficult: first, it is necessary to at least understand this area of ​​technology, understand the essence of the problem, conduct research on the copy object, and secondly, cost production using a new technology in any case, more difficult than upgrading the current one. In contrast, a small change in current production technology or product upgrades is copied at relatively low cost. At the same time, the profits from small improvements can be enormous.
Protection of technical solutions that are not fundamentally new is usually quite simple, because in Russia a patent for a utility model can be obtained for a device (according to article 1351 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, a technical solution for a device is protected as a utility model. A utility model is granted legal protection if it is new and industrially applicable).
From practice : 4 years ago, N came up with a design to protect water produced from a well from contamination. The design was very popular with consumers. About a year ago, the competitors of this company were noticed using a similar design. Unfortunately, it was recognized that the design has already become widely known, and it was not possible to patent it. This sad experience reminds us of the benefits of early patenting, sometimes even at the idea stage.

The computer program cannot be patented.
A computer program is subject to copyright and a patent cannot be obtained for it, only a certificate, which once again is proof of your right of authorship and the date of creation of the program. However, the algorithm used in the program as a method, for example, can be protected. In this case, you can get a patent for an invention. There are quite a few things to say here, but this has already been done before me here and here .

In our country, a patent is an empty piece of paper.
Perhaps the most common myth. American and European patent wars are widely known, but in recent years the number of lawsuits relating to intellectual property issues has increased in our country. As a rule, in the case of a quality patent, the court remains on the side of the copyright holder. This year, the court on intellectual property rights began its work, the first case to which was submitted on July 3. To date, the court on intellectual property is considering 719 cases. The maximum amount of a Russian lawsuit in a patent dispute amounted to 1,843,746,000 rubles, the dispute related to the invention “Method for the production of egg noodles for quick cooking” The patentee won.

Patenting is long and difficult.
Unfortunately, according to our legislation, this is not so fast. For example, the period for obtaining a patent for inventions is on average 1.5 years, for a useful model 4–6 months, a certificate for a computer program is 3 months, but also without considering the Post of Russia. However, for example, comparing with the United States, where the term for obtaining a patent for an invention ranges from 1.5 to 3 years, everything is not so bad. As for the difficulty: self-drafting an application is not an easy task. Especially if the patent does not "go to the table", but will actually be used.
The first step in writing the application is to write the essence of the solution. In this case, besides the fact that it is necessary to adhere to certain formal rules, it is worth using generally accepted terms, to describe logically, and most importantly for the future. It is necessary to foresee any development and modernization of the object within the framework of the technical problem solved by it and describe all the necessary features in the formula, fixing the scope of legal protection. Further, in the remaining sections of the description, there are also pitfalls. But this is a topic for a separate article.
There is always an option to ask for help from a specialist in the field of patenting, whose task is not so much the design of the application itself and the accompanying documents as to make the application in such a way that it really protects the rights. Moreover, a good specialist will be able to come up with all the options for the development of the idea and describe it so that future upgrades are copy-protected before they appear. This is exactly what they study for years.

Patenting is expensive.
Indeed, the cost of patenting services is not cheap. The patent for an invention with the help of a specialist averages 50-80 thousand rubles. across Russia. Also, the cost of patenting will include state fees , which on average amount to 4-7 thousand rubles and depend on the type of intellectual property claimed (inventions, utility models, or others).

How to get a patent for free?

If you need to get a quality patent for a legal entity, or IP, you can use the help of our state. There are various funds to support entrepreneurship, in some of them there is a free patenting service. And it is really free for the future patent owner, including the services of specialists, so you need to use it until you “covered up the shop”. Examples of organizations that can apply for free patenting services are the Skolkovo Foundation, the Sverdlovsk Regional Fund for Entrepreneurship Support. Such organizations give out grants for business development, and also pay for the services of patenting developments to partner firms that have proven themselves in the market for consulting services in the field of intellectual property. If you apply for free patenting to the Skolkov Fund, it is imperative that you be its resident. The Sverdlovsk Regional Entrepreneurship Support Fund provides support in free patenting of any legal entities or individual entrepreneurs registered in the Sverdlovsk Region. It is possible that a similar fund will also be opened in your region, for example, RVC (Russian Venture Company) also plans to open a patenting fund during 2014. Honestly, before writing this article, I was sure that there were many more funds and I wanted to give a long list. But, whether they are not in a hurry to provide information about what they are doing (perhaps they are taking away the remnants of state money), or I was just looking bad. If someone knows about such a fund in their region, I’m happy to add it to the list of funds.
Intellectual property departments at universities can also help you to patent for free. And the fee is likely to be taken not in money, but in shares in business and joint ownership of rights. What is sometimes more expensive than just once paying for services. On the other hand, they do it with great enthusiasm, since they receive buns for the number of patented developments.

If the fund was not found.

If, after all, you did not manage to find a patron, you need to carefully approach the issue of searching for a company providing services in the field of patenting. Here are a few recommendations.

Miser pays twice
The first rule of any business ˗ if you want to get a result, invest. So, in principle, you shouldn’t regret spending 2–3 times more by ordering an official registered firm, and not an individual.
The fact is that an unqualified patent will “emerge” much later - when it comes to the proceedings, and there it will be too late to drink Borjomi. Suddenly it turns out that the wording understandable to you can be interpreted completely in your favor. In firms providing services in the field of patenting, most often there is a certain system of quality control of less experienced professionals more experienced.
Some of the "quality mark" is the title of "patent attorney" (patent attorney is an expert in the field of intellectual property with more than 4 years of experience, extensive experience and having passed a rather complicated exam in Rospatent).

Reputation not all
In the process of selecting a company-executor of services, you should not be guided only by the company's reputation. Today the market of services in the field of intellectual property is only developing and gaining momentum. In the absence of due competition, some large firms that have already won a reputation may not always properly relate to your order. It should be understood that the specifics of this industry is that the "marriage" is not visible.
From personal experience, I would say that some disappointed customers of a large company operating in the whole of Russia later use the services of lesser-known companies, but who treat their customers as a “gift”. This does not mean that large enterprises, in principle, do not work well and perform their work poorly, just as lucky as anyone.

Patent attorneys are our all!
Before entering into an agreement with a company providing services in the field of patenting, I advise you to study the composition of its employees. Or rather, to find out whether this company has a staff or in partnership with a patent attorney. Moreover, if you want to get a patent for an invention, then is there a patent attorney for inventions in a company, if an industrial design, that is, if there is a patent attorney for industrial designs. Frankly, a patent attorney is not a guarantee, but a kind of "bonus."

Rate work
Initially, I advise you to conclude an agreement to conduct only a patent search and examination of a technical solution for the possibility of legal protection. According to the results of your work, you will most likely have some idea of ​​the company and its employees as specialists. Some criteria to evaluate are :
1. Availability of reporting to the customer on the search results;
2. Conduct a patent search not only in the Russian Federation, but also in other countries, if we are talking about a patent for an invention or industrial design.
3. The term for performing a patent search on average should not exceed two working weeks. Otherwise, you just dynamite.
4. Search quality. Ask the artist for the texts of selected patents, study them and evaluate the quality of the material selection, whether it corresponds to the subject matter of your decision, whether the selected information is true describes objects close in essence to your decision. It's easy to do this.
5. Relax and have fun.
When you have chosen a firm precisely and entered into an agreement with it for the services of preparing application documentation, I advise you to prepare for a long and painstaking work. Do not expect that the patent specialist will write a complete application without your help, unfortunately, he cannot get into your head to understand what your development is. Be prepared to answer questions day and night. Patenting is a joint work of an expert in the field of intellectual property and an inventor. In another way.
I hope, having read this article, you received useful information and use it for the benefit of your business.
PS This is my first habratopik. Written in collaboration with my girlfriend, who, in fact, is a patent specialist. All examples are hers.