vrijdag 21 oktober 2016

Patent tip: The forcefields of a patent

The three forcefields of a patent

In order to serve the purpose of a patent, being the reward for the patent holder and the recognition for the inventor, a patent document consists of three forcefields. In fact, a patent is a legal document, governed by a legal forcefield, providing a monopoly in an economic forcefield for an invention, being the result of the inventors contribution to a technical forcefield. 





What is the relevance of these force fields, well each part of the patent document reflects one of these forces. 

The economic forcefield: the front page

The frontpage reflects the economic indicators, as who is the patent holder, for which country is the patent granted, who is the inventor, and when was the patent granted, so till when is it potentially a valid right.

The technical forcefield: the specification

The description reflects the technical information sufficient to understand and work the invention. In this part of the patent, typical inspiration can be found for further development and it can be inspected what technical developments certain market players are working on. 

The legal forcefield: the claims

The claims are the demarcation clauses for the legal protection, claimed by the patent holder to be his exclusive right. 

The fourth forcefield: Sales

In order to be a success, well the underlying invention or technology need to be sold. And this is a strongly underestimated forcefields by most inventors, about 3% of all patents is commercially successful in the sense that profit is generated, sufficient to cover all costs, including the costs of the unsuccessful ones. 



I wish you all happy inventing!

Hendrik de Lange Dutch and European patent attorney





PS: In the below video, a presentation (in Dutch, soon to be subtitled) on this topic is given.