Requirements for Getting a Patent

With patent protection, you have the right to prevent others from copying, manufacturing, selling or importing you original creation without your permission. With this you are also protected from the financial cost and the cost of time that you have invested and developed it, and it allows you to reap the fullest benefits of what you have invented or innovated. And, you are given a pre-determined period to establish your trade and keep others from entering the same pursuit though they are financially capable.

Patent is a very valuable tool yet it is not a guarantee to success. Securing a patent can cause you thousands of dollars, and this is the reason why it is important to take some steps to make sure that this is a smart business move. For after all, rarely do patent products ever make it to market.

So before decide to have you invention patented, make sure to evaluate your idea first and see if this invention has a viable commercial value. To help you do that, you have to understand your product, your target market and what other products are available that is serving the same market. Somehow the information you get here goes far beyond your gut feeling and the encouraging words given by your family and friends. You have to gain this understanding from a solid market research and a substantial attention to product development.

You have to make sure that your idea does not infringe on someone else’s patent. To do that, you should conduct a “preliminary patent search” on government’s records. When you search these government records make sure you check the keywords for every possible concept of the invention. After doing the pry-at search you then proceed to the freedom to operate search which gives information on the protection period of the patient. This step will help ensure that your idea has not already been patented.

if you need someone to help you in the task, you can hire an expert to do so.

Next is to develop a basic prototype or a model to determine your product’s functionality. Here your invention is tested and reworked so that an acceptable model will come out from it.

If you now have a perfect model, you can start to define you market and determine how much large the market is. A very small product might not be viable commercially.

Next comes determining the cost of manufacturing the product. Whether the cost to make is less than the market is willing to pay for it.

If you have found yourself a commercially viable product, then next decide if you will get a patent for it or not.