Patent advice

[T4NG0]

Hoping we have some PH members who know the patent process well and can advise on below please.

With a business partner we have an invention that will be trialled in public in around 4 weeks. From this event we will know for sure if the invention has commercial potential or not. Without going into more detail we are committed to this event, so cannot back out. Not the best scenario, but it is what it is.

I understand you can't patent an invention once it has been made public.

Based on the information below from the Goverment website it appears you only have to submit 2 of the 4 parts to start the process off , allowing 12 months to submit the remainder of info including the "legal" part ...eg Claims

goverment said:

A patent application is made up of 4 parts that need to meet specific criteria.

You must include:

- a description of your invention that allows others to see how it works and how it could be made
- drawings to illustrate your description
- legal statements that set out the technical features of your invention that are to be protected (known as ‘claims’)
- a summary of all the important technical aspects of your invention (known as the abstract)

You have to submit your description and drawings with your application form.

You can file your claims and abstract once your patent is pending, but it’s best if you submit all the parts together.

So the question is , based on the fact we have little time and there is a risk the trial event may prove the invention does not work, would just the submission of the description and drawings be enough to claim our "patent submission date" giving us up to 12 months to submit the "claim" and "abstract" with associated lawyer costs.

The difference between us submitting the first 2 parts vs all 4 incl legal advice is £240 vs £4-5k , so not a difference to be sniffed at.

In an ideal world we would have established the proof of concept / testing in private and allowed plenty of time to submit the patent all in one go, but we are where we are

Thanks in advance for any advice and if you can recommend any Patent lawyers that specialise in technology, in the Worcestershire or Gloucestershire area , that would be great

Dave.

Edited by T4NG0 on Friday 23 January 16:37

[T4NG0]

JPJPJP said:

Michael at Downing IP is a member on here

You could do far worse than to contact him, he is good

www.downing-ip.com

Thanks.

No one else have experience of patents and can comment ?

[T4NG0]

Thanks guys, much appreciated

[XBOW]

Yes submission was made ok, although there was response stating less than 5% of submissions do not use a patent attorney. Time will tell.

[XBOW]

Fully agree. It was all down to pressure of timescales at the time.