Patent advice....
Discussion
I don't believe you will be able to track internationally against a specific patent, as you have to file in each country seperately...which will result in multiple patent numbers.
If its an EU patent, this entitles you to file in any EU country with your patent taking precendence, but you must still file specifically in each country IIRC.
You will need to search against the product, key terms, or the inventor for each country to see if there is a patent filed there. If the invention is not filed in that country, the inventor pay still have the opportunity to do so.
You'll probably need specialist advice to progress (or put in lots of search time). A patent lawyer should be able to search over different countries for you, but it will cost ££££.
UV
If its an EU patent, this entitles you to file in any EU country with your patent taking precendence, but you must still file specifically in each country IIRC.
You will need to search against the product, key terms, or the inventor for each country to see if there is a patent filed there. If the invention is not filed in that country, the inventor pay still have the opportunity to do so.
You'll probably need specialist advice to progress (or put in lots of search time). A patent lawyer should be able to search over different countries for you, but it will cost ££££.
UV
Edited by Ultraviolet on Friday 27th July 15:22
First you will need to find one of the patents in the "family" - a patent is a territorial right so a single patent will cover only one country (or territory), but a patent can have equivalents in various other countries - these are usually referred to as a patent family.
To find a patent then you need to search - the company that owns it is useful, the subject matter, the name(s) of the inventor(s) etc will help to narrow the search.
http://ep.espacenet.com/
and
http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html
These sites will let you do basic searches by keyword or owner etc - once you have found one then plug that number into espacenet and it will often give you some equivalents, but I ond't know of any free sites that provide patent family listings. Once you have the patent family you then need to check the status in each country (some earier than others - some online - most not!).
If you put as many details about the patent as you can here I'll see if I can find anything (assuming that I remember about this thread - e-mail me through my profile if I don't respond or if you don't want to put the details up on here!)
Alex
To find a patent then you need to search - the company that owns it is useful, the subject matter, the name(s) of the inventor(s) etc will help to narrow the search.
http://ep.espacenet.com/
and
http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html
These sites will let you do basic searches by keyword or owner etc - once you have found one then plug that number into espacenet and it will often give you some equivalents, but I ond't know of any free sites that provide patent family listings. Once you have the patent family you then need to check the status in each country (some earier than others - some online - most not!).
If you put as many details about the patent as you can here I'll see if I can find anything (assuming that I remember about this thread - e-mail me through my profile if I don't respond or if you don't want to put the details up on here!)
Alex
Edited by AlexB on Friday 27th July 17:40
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