I’m sure you’ve all heard about Patents but you’re not completely 100% sure what this term means. Admittedly, whenever I hear this word pictures begin floating around in my mind of old men in dusty labs writing formulas and coming up with weird inventions. That’s not quite it.
According to the WIPO, a patent,
“is an exclusive right granted for an invention, which is a product or a process that provides, in general, a new way of doing something, or offers a new technical solution to a problem. To get a patent, technical information about the invention must be disclosed to the public in a patent application.”
Patents give incentives to inventors by offering them opportunities for recognition and monetary rewards for their work. The granting of a patent encourages other inventors to develop new technologies and innovations which generally improve and bring value to our everyday lives.
A great many things may be patented, eg. nanotechnology, medicines, computer software (which may also qualify for copyright protection), machinery and processes. However there are a few categories of things that may not qualify for a patent, inter alia, ideas, literary works, hypotheses, a presentation of information, diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical methods used on the human and animal body and any invention which may be contrary to public order or morality.
That being said it should be noted that the process for applying for a patent is a somewhat complex and expensive one, which I have attempt to simplify below.
Applying for a Patent
Firstly, your invention must met certain criteria, it must :
- Be Novel: Your patentable invention must be new, it must be different from what is available in the public domain, nothing like it must be in existence.
- Be Useful or have industrial utility/applicability: Your patentable invention must work, serve a useful purpose and accomplish something.
- Include an inventive step: Your patentable invention must be unconventional and non-obvious to someone with average skill in the same art.
In Trinidad and Tobago applications for Patents are governed by the Patent Act and Patent Rules of 1996 and must be filed at the Trinidad and Tobago Intellectual Property Office (TT IPO). Applicants must complete and file,
1) The Patent Request Form No. 1.
2) A disclosure of the invention must accompany the application. This is the specifications of the invention, which include: Descriptions, Claims, Abstract & Drawings (if necessary).
The application must be submitted in triplicate on A4 size paper as outlined in Rule 16 of the Patents Rules (above), together with the application fee of TT$2000. The application may be submitted by the applicant or his attorney.
After the application is filed, it goes through the following steps: the formality examination, the substantive examination, the publication and issuance of the certificate.
Protection granted
Patents are granted for 20 years, they are territorial rights. These exclusive rights are only applicable in the country or region in which a patent has been filed and granted. The patent’s owner has the exclusive right to prevent or stop others from commercially exploiting the patented invention. ie. the invention cannot be commercially made, used, distributed, imported or sold by others without the patent owner’s consent.
Once the patent is granted maintenance fees or annuities have to be paid to retain the patent, these fees increase during the course of the 20 year term of the patent and must be paid annually from the filing date, beginning at the start of the second year. Note that the application may be withdrawn or revoked if the fees are not paid.
Trinidad and Tobago is a Member state of the Paris Union and the Patent Corporation Treaty therefore applicants in Trinidad and Tobago have the option to also apply for patents in any of the other respective member states within certain time frames.
Some advice
Do not tell others about your invention, the TT IPO advises persons, not to “publicly disclose the invention more than a year before” they file an application. This could be counted as prior publication of their invention. “Any type of disclosure (whether by word of mouth, demonstration, advertisement or article in a journal), by the applicant or anyone acting for them, could prevent the applicant from getting a patent. It is essential that the applicant only make any disclosure under conditions of strict confidence.”
Following this I would suggest that patent applicants have persons sign non-disclosure agreements if they absolutely have to disclose information about their invention to them.
Applicants may also wish to consider doing a patent search before applying for a patent. The WIPO provides the facility to conduct these searches via the patent information services for developing countries. The TT IPO also provides a great deal of patent related resources on its website.
Useful links:
Phoenix Legal and Consulting Services 