Clearly, the first owner of any invention is the inventor. For an “independent inventor”, that settles the matter. However, many people invent things while in employment and the patent law lays down the circumstances in which inventions made by an employee belong to the employer and those in which they remain with the employee. Generally speaking, if you are employed in a position in which inventions may well occur and you are employed to contribute in that way, an invention relevant to the field of your employment will automatically be owned by your employer. On the other hand, if you are employed in one area and invent something in a totally different technical area, it will normally be yours, particularly if you are not employed in an area where inventions are expected. If you make an invention you may be bound to disclose it to your employer in any event, but the employer will usually know to whom the invention belongs. In cases of dispute a Patent Attorney will be able to advise you and, if necessary, the Patent Office can decide the issue.

Having decided that getting patent protection for your invention is the right course of action to take, then the best thing you should do is obtain the services of a qualified Patent Attorney. Some of the requirements for obtaining a patent are not easy to understand, since they have evolved over the years as a result of many thousands of applications. This is where Patent Attorneys with their years of experience and training can help. Getting a patent is one thing; getting a patent that properly protects your invention and gives you the best chance of making money out of it is something else.

The first thing your attorney will do, after providing general advice, is draft your patent specification and file it with an Application Form at the United Kingdom Patent Office. It is difficult to overemphasise how important it is to get the wording of your patent specification right first time. In particular, the wording of your patent claims can make the difference between obtaining a financial return on your invention, or making nothing at all.

There is one further important fact to be aware of at this stage and that is that it is not possible to add details of further improvements to your application once you have filed it. There is, however, one way of incorporating improvements if these occur within one year of the initial filing. A second application may be filed claiming the date of filing of the first and including its subject-matter together with details of the improvements. This adds to the costs but the second application will, effectively, replace the original application.

Having decided to file a patent application what process does it go through and what, in broad terms, does the applicant have to do?
Anyone who lives or has a place of business in the United Kingdom may file a patent application themselves. However, you are strongly advised to obtain the services of a qualified Patent Attorney since the patent procedure is not simple and mistakes can result in you not getting the best protection for your invention. It is the sad experience of many applicants who do not employ Patent Attorneys that their granted rights are not adequate for their needs or that it is too easy for a competitor to design around them. The first step in the procedure is the filing of:

• a request for grant of a patent (this is a standard pre-printed form which must be completed by the applicant or the Attorney);
• a description of the invention (this is called the specification and must be a technical description which is clear and complete enough for the invention to be reproducible by a person skilled in the technology of the invention); and
• any drawings referred to in the description.

1. one or more claims (these define, in words, the matter for which protection is sought and thus will define the area of effectiveness of the patent once it has been granted);
2. an abstract (this is a concise summary of the invention, preferably not more than 150 words); and
3. the search fee.

You will also have to decide whether or not to seek patent protection in countries outside the UK.On completion of steps 1 to 3, the Patent Office Examiner will proceed to produce the search report which results from a documentary search through the Office’s extensive database to see what has been published which relates to the invention. This search report is sent to the applicant or the Attorney together with copies of any documents cited in the report. This report provides the chance to assess the patentability of the invention and amend the application if necessary.

The Office will publish both the application and the search report. Usually both are published together. In any case, the application is published as soon as possible after the expiry of 18 months from the date of initial filing. This publication enables anyone to see the details of the invention for which a patent is being sought.

If you wish to proceed with the application, you have 6 months from the date of publication of the search report to request the next major stage in the procedure, which is substantive examination. An examination fee must be paid for this. In essence, the examination is to determine whether or not the application meets all the requirements of the law, for example, is it new? Is it inventive? Is there sufficient disclosure? And so on. Quite often, the Examiner is not immediately satisfied, sometimes because the documents are unclear or are inconsistent and sometimes because the claims are not considered to define a patentable invention in the light of what was found in the search. At this stage, you can amend your claims within the disclosure of your application so as to define the invention in terms, which distinguish it in a clear and meaningful way. At the end of this process and once the Examiner is satisfied that your patent may be granted, the patent will be entered on the register and an annual renewal fee will have to be paid to keep the patent in force, starting from the fourth anniversary from the filing date and subject to a maximum term of 20 years.

On patent grant you become a patentee. This gives you the right to stop others from using your invention as defined by the claims of your patent. If anyone does use your invention without permission they can be forced to stop by taking action in the Court. Such actions are rare and those that are started are quite often settled by the parties without going very far. The mere presence of a patent is often sufficient to stop copying.

However, it is open to an infringer or anybody to attack the patent at any time after it is granted, saying that the invention is not new or is obvious. They may bring forward stronger or just different arguments from those raised by the Examiner. If these arguments convince the Court, then the patent is invalid and it will be cancelled. This does not happen very often and usually the parties agree to settle.