What is a patent? A patent protects a new idea by giving the owner the right to prevent others from making, importing or selling the idea without their permission. A patent is granted to an inventor for a limited time. How do you get a patent? The first step is to commission a worldwide patent search to discover if your idea has already been patented anywhere is the world. It would be foolish to waste several months waiting for the patent application to come through only to be told that the idea has been patented by someone else already. What is a patent search? It is a search carried out to determine if there is already a patent on an idea. Potential investors will often require a patent search completed by a professional researcher before choosing to back an idea. The expert researcher will complete out a thorough worldwide search using specialized techniques including classification code systems and cross referencing. This patent search uses worldwide databases which are not accessible to the inventor. Why do a professional patent search? An advance patent search can save the inventor a lot of time and money if a match is found and a patent cannot be obtained. It is better to establish this as soon as possible to minimize time and money spent on something that is not original. The idea may be an improvement on existing ‘prior art’ which could still be patentable. Therefore you would need to do the search to find all similar patents and then draft your patent application accordingly. A complete report will show what areas of your idea need changing if they conflict with existing patents or which areas of the idea to further develop as they are truly original. Potential investors will expect a patent search to have been conducted. If the invention is found to be original through the patent search, the results will still help the wording of the patent application. The results of a patent search The results will always be useful either if the invention was found to be original or not. However the language used in patent applications can be difficult to understand and it is often hard to comprehend the implications of the results. Therefore it is important that any patent search that you commission comes with a consultation with an expert in the field of patenting and inventions to discuss what to do next. Inventors need to be aware that there is no guarantee that when a professional patent search takes place that all prior inventions will be detectable. However it is still a vital stage. Can I now get a patent on my idea? Now that a patent search has been conducted the inventor might choose to submit a patent application to the patent office. However it is likely that having looked at the results of the patent search some development needs to be done on the idea. This might be adapting the idea so that it does not conflict with any other patents or further developing the truly original aspects of the idea. The Patent application The patent application is the document submitted to the relevant intellectual property office to acquire a patent on an idea. An application is best submitted to the relevant intellectual property office after the patent search is done and the idea has been developed. It can be self filed or completed by a professional patent attorney. Application forms are available through the relevant intellectual property office. Self filed will cost around 200 pounds or through a patent attorney it could cost between 1500 pounds and 3000 pounds. Some inventors choose to use a patent attorney because the application is such as important document. For more information on how to patent an idea see: http://www.innovate-design.co.uk