exactly how to patent an idea. In this vide, I explain
exactly what I think would be the best practice to protect your idea with a patent. When you think you had a really good idea, and made a new invention, maybe first do a really good search on Google, or maybe Ebay, which I also find sometimes very helpful. And once you have found
out that, in your opinion, no one else has come up
with exactly your idea, do not talk to other
people about your idea. Because if you talk to
other people about your idea this can be considered novelty destroying. A patent needs to be novel when filed, as a patent application. And anything that is in the public domain, so publicly known before the filing date, for example something
you tell other people without a secrecy agreement, can be novelty destroying. The U.S. patent law and
not many other laws, have an exception to this rule. If you personally are talking
about a certain invention, then this is harmless or
not novelty destroying, if this happens 12 months prior to filing the patent application. But there is a danger. If other people talk about your idea, then this might be novelty destroying. So better not talk to other people before you have filed
a patent application. And this rule doesn't
apply to other countries, or at least not to most other countries. So for example, if you
file a patent application in the U.S. and then
you want to later file a patent application in Europe, and you claim the priority of
the U.S. patent application then whatever you have
said before the filing date will be considered novelty destroying with regard to your
European patent application. So do not talk about your invention to other people before
filing a patent application. When drafting your patent application, I strongly suggest that
you enlist the help of a patent attorney. First of all, the patent
attorney is doing nothing but drafting and filing
patent applications so patent attorneys
have a lot of experience in for example, searching for prior art that is recommended, in
addition to your Google search. A patent attorney should
first search the prior art, and search databases if your
invention is really new. Then the patent attorney
really has a lot of experience in drafting the patent application. And in my personal
view, it's a good recipe to get a really strong patent application. First do a really good
search for prior art. Also via your patent
attorney, or other companies that offer patent searches. And then once you have identified maybe five to 10 really close documents, so documents that disclose
very similar invention, not exactly your invention, but very similar inventions. Then you identify maybe
10 to 20 differences for each of these documents. So let's say you have invention A, and there's a document
disclosing an invention B that is very similar, try to find at least
10 or more differences that make your invention
different from invention B. And then for each difference, try to come up with what
the advantage would be connected with this difference. So for example, if you have invented a car with four wheels and a rearview mirror, let's say a rearview mirror
was not known before, and cars with four wheels were known. So invention B is a car with four wheel, and you have a car with four wheels and a rearview mirror, then the difference is the rearview mirror and the advantage is that
you have less accidents because you can see more of the traffic. Try to do that for each of the documents, and identify as many
differences as you can for each of the documents. Then, or before that,
you explain your idea or your invention in as much detail as you can to the patent attorney. And once the patent attorney
has your detailed description together with all the differences
to the prior documents and advantages connected
with these differences, then the patent attorney has
a really good starting point to draft a very strong,
good patent application. Once your patent attorney has filed the patent application for you, the examiner will start a search with his own search strategy of course. And the examiner often
comes up with documents that fall within your broadest claim one. And now your differences to the prior art come into play because now most likely, one of these differences will allow you to differentiate yourself
or your invention from the references
that the examiner found. And this discussion with the examiner often then leads to a granted patent. I hope I was able to show
you how to patent an idea. If you are new to my channel, and want to know more
about patents, trademarks, and designs please
subscribe to my channel. If you like the video, hit like. If you have comments and questions, I will be glad to answer
them below this video. And most importantly, protect
your intellectual property and go make it count.
