Patents
A patent protects the way in which an invention works.
A patent is a grant from the Commonwealth of the right to exclude all other Australians from exploiting the patented invention. Given the sweeping power of a patent It's no wonder that the preparation of a solid patent application requires both high level technical and legal skills.
For example consider the following two phrases "an apparatus including terminals connected to a mains cable" and "an apparatus including terminals connectable to a mains cable". In patent litigation the slight difference between those two phrases could mean the difference between receiving a large award of damages or none at all. In short, every word counts .
We prepare patent applications taking into account not only how the invention works but also commercial factors such as the product delivery mechanism or supply chain, how the product is to be used, can the product be supplied as a kit or pre-fabricated and if the invention is e-commerce related then will the various servers be located in different countries?
This means that if you ever need to enforce your patent it will be easier to do so . It also means that licensees and potential investors are more likely to be confident that they are investing in a valuable business asset.
What we need, time frames and ballpark costs.
What we need:
In order to prepare a patent application we firstly need answers to the following questions:
- What is the problem that your invention is designed to address?
- Have people been aware of this problem in the past and if so what have been the past approaches to overcoming the problem?
- How will the invention be supplied? For example, will you be selling it in kit form? will you always be installing it on site? or will it be sold uninstalled? will you be selling it on a CD-ROM? or will it be downloadable over the Internet?
- Who are the inventors?
- Who will own the invention and, if not the inventors, how is the owner entitled to the patent from the inventors. (We can help you work this out).
- Are you interested in protecting overseas markets?
- Who are your major competitors likely to be?
Then we need a description of the invention. This description should contain enough information for someone else that works in the technical field of the invention to understand and build the invention. It is particularly important that you describe the best way that you know of performing the invention.
We'll provide you with a guide to putting the description together once you have decided to go ahead. We'll also let you know if we believe that more information is required once we've read through your description.
What it costs:
You should budget on between $2700 and $5000 for having the patent specification prepared. Download the flowchart at left to see the procedure for obtaining a standard patent in Australia, with typical costs for each step.
The exact cost of preparing the initial patent application will depend on a number of factors including how complex the technology is, e.g. it costs less to prepare a patent specification for a corkscrew than for a digital radio receiver, and how clear and comprehensive your description is.
It doesn't cost anything to have an initial meeting with us and from that meeting we can give you a firm cost estimate.
Time Frames:
It typically takes between two and six weeks to prepare a patent specification depending on how clear and comprehensive your description is.
Normally the draft patent specification passes between the attorney and the inventor at least twice in order make sure the document accurately explains and defines the invention.
