Imagine you have made something very unique but do not have any idea how it will work in the market. After a few days, you realize that someone else has come up with the same innovation in the market which you created first. It’s doing amazing and generating a lot of revenue in the market.

Surely you would feel concerned because you were the first person who conceived that idea. Now the thought process which comes to your mind is that “Wish I would represent it first. Wish I would have not held myself back at that time.” Generally, it happens with 80 percent of the people in the world. In this article, we are going to discuss innovations and why it is important to protect your innovation.

What is Innovation

In simple words, innovations are inventions of scientists or any person which benefits society and generates a lot of revenue in the market. We are living in the world of Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning, Virtual Reality, etc. We are dealing with a lot of new technologies every day. Now we will discuss why people are concerned about protecting their innovations.

Why there is need for Patent Protection

Just imagine if there is no system of innovation protection in the market. Either its product or process how as an inventor you feel secure. What would happen then? In this scenario, the inventor will not introduce their ideas or innovation in the market so that no one can copy them.

But if we talk about the current situation there is already a patent system that is very strong in the market whether it’s a national or international patent system. Now as an inventor you will not hide your innovation because in the current system inventors can easily protect their innovations. They can easily commercialize their patent and generate revenue.

Benefits of Innovation Protection

The first and foremost benefit is that you can stop others from using or exploiting your innovation in any way without your permission. For the new innovators, you can spin off into a new start-up. By patenting your innovation you can generate revenue and can have a good share of your innovations. By patenting you are also benefiting society by providing some new technology which will ease the life of the people.

Last but not least by patenting you are creating a fence around your innovation so that no foreign ailment can infringe your innovation. You become the whole sole owner of your innovation. In the end, if we conclude then patents give you ownership of your innovation in a legal way so that no one can copy your innovation.

Eligibility Criteria For Patent

Now the question that arises in your mind is what kind of innovations can be protected. If we talk about eligibility then your innovation either the product or process should fulfill the conditions written below.

• Uniqueness or Novelty – Your innovation should be unique worldwide whether you are filing for a patent in one country. Suppose you developed a technology in the US. First, you need to file in the US Patent Office. It will be considered as a patent only if that technology is worldwide unique or Novel.
• Inventive or Technical Advancement – Your innovation should have technical advancement. You can understand this from a simple example. Earlier we used a text messaging system for conversation. Now we use WhatsApp which is an advancement of the previous text messaging technology. There are several examples which we can see in our surroundings like switching from landlines to smartphones, watches to smartwatches, Hard Disk to Cloud, etc. This is how technology evolution has happened.
• Industrial Application – It says whatever you have invented that should be able to be manufactured in the same type of industry.

What is need of Patent Search

First, you should go for a patent search before applying. In this section, you will understand why patent search is important. When you conceive an idea, make sure that you are not reinventing the wheel. You can take help from a person who has brilliant skills in patent searching so that he/she can do patentability and novelty searches for you. It makes sure that you are not infringing the patent of someone else.

In the later stage when you apply for a patent in the patenting office after complete scrutiny you must be sure at that time about your product novelty. Otherwise in the final stage when the examiner examines your innovation he/she can come up with many objections which will be very difficult to tackle at that time.

There are various software available online which can do a patent search for you. Most of them are paid. As we know Black Friday is on 26th November 2021. Most companies will lower their prices on the event. So you can buy a paid version at a very very low price. You will be able to check the latest deals and offers on Black Friday 2021 online on various products.

Which Ideas can be patented

People generally come up with thousands of ideas and they do not know which of their ideas can be patented. Although everything can be patented if they are fulfilling the criteria we are going to discuss.

The product which you have in your hand while reading this article can also be patented. So a product can be patented. If we take an example of a pen, it can be patented.

The process of making a pen can be patented. That apparatus by which your pen is made can be patented. The ink composition of your pen can be patented. So here you learn about 4 things which are product, process, apparatus, and composition that can be patented.