What is a patent?

The New Penguin Business Dictionary defines a parent as "A legal monopoly offered by the state to inventors giving them the sole right to make, use, or sell their invention during the period the patent remains in force. This period is for a maximum of 20 years from the date of filing…Patents are granted to individuals and organizations who can lay claim to a new product or manufacturing process, or to an improvement of an existing product or process which was not previously known. … The idea must be new and not an obvious extension of what is already known. Discoveries (as opposed to inventions), scientific theory and mathematical processes are not patentable under the Patent Act 1988.

For a patent to benefit from legal protection it must meet the following strict criteria:

1.       Have novelty. The Patent Act 1977, Section 2(1): ‘An invention shall be taken to be new if it does not form part of the state of the art.’ A ‘state of the art’ is defined as all matter, i.e. publications, written or oral, or even anticipation (Windsurfing International v. Tabar Marine 1985) will render a patent invalid.

2.       Be an inventive step. Section 3 of the Patent Act: ‘An invention shall be taken to involve an inventive step if it is not obvious to a person skilled in the art.’

3.       Have industrial applications. Under the Patent Act an invention shall be taken to be capable of industrial application if it can be a machine, product or process. Penicillin was a discovery which was not patentable but the process of isolating and storing penicillin clearly had industrial applications and thus was patentable.” (Patent, 2003,The New Penguin Business Dictionary. Penguin.)  

Collins Dictionary of Business further explains; “Patents registered in one country may be valid in other countries if filed in a country which is party to a reciprocal treaty. The UK, for example, is a member of the 13-country European Patent Convention which allows inventors to obtain patent rights in the EPC countries by filing a single European patent application. Globally, patent applications are administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) under the Patent Cooperation Treaty which enables investors to apply for registration in member countries with a single registration….The patent system has the twin objectives of both encouraging inventors to undertake the risks and expenses of breaking new ground by offering them temporary monopoly rights to profit from their work, and providing for the eventual dissemination of advances in technology to the benefit of society as a whole.” (patent. 2006. Collins Dictionary of Business. Collins.)

Who grants a patent?

In the UK the Intellectual Property Office grants Patents. 

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) provide details of National Intellectual Properly Offices.

Searching for Patents

There are a variety of patent searching services, the UK Intellectual Property Office advises using Espacenet Patent Search managed by the European Patent Office which has worldwide coverage.

Assistance in searching for Patents is provided in the UK at Patent Library, Business and Intellectual Property Centres located across the country.