Benefits of a patent

Temporary exclusive rights. Patents are protected for 20 years.

Third parties may only use or apply your invention with consent (license)

Important source of income

Means of negotiation

Marketing purposes

If you have developed a new product/process and want to protect it, then your invention must meet the following conditions:

Novelty: The product/process must be completely new and may not have been publicly disclosed (also not by the actual inventor, for example in a company brochure or presentation at a fair). An invention counts as new if it distinguishes itself from what was already known at the moment of applying for the patent's registration

Inventive step: the invention should not be obvious to the expert,

Industrial applicability: The invention must be technically applicable and should be exploitable in the area of industry, including agriculture.

A patent is valid for one or more countries and for a maximum of 20 years. Whether you apply for a patent or not is a business choice. You are not required to have a patent for a product that you want to market or a smart process that you want to apply. However, if your idea is commercially so attractive that others might want to copy it, it is advisable to consider whether patent protection is possible. A patent does give you a monopoly and even a large advertising budget cannot match that.

If you think that your invention is eligible for a patent protection or would like us to assess this, please do not hesitate to contact one of our advisers today for further information.

NB.: A patent does not protect services, scientific theories, computation methods, ideas without specific elaboration and aesthetic designs. Other forms of protection may be applicable such as copyright, model and design law or trademark law.