By The use of the patent system is the most important tool for the protection of inventions that companies and individuals, technology centers and public research organizations have at their disposal.
In today’s post, we have decided to summarize the advantages of a patent in a few brief points that will be useful for any inventor, SME or company that seeks to be at the forefront and needs to protect the development of their products.
In general, and especially in today’s global environment, the companies need to be innovative in order to excel in the quality of competition, seeking and applying solutions based on the advanced technologies and designs.
It is worth remembering again what the requirements are to patent of an invention which are as follows;
- Novelty
- Inventive activity
- Industrial application
There are several international patent filing procedures and treaties. Let’s see below in general terms what the advantages are of a patent.
- A patent protects its owner for a period of time, usually up to a maximum of 20 years, during which no third party can use the technology protected by the patent without the consent of the owner.
- It is the legal instrument of protection, more effective against possible copies and plagiarisms of the invention.
- A patent is a valuable intangible asset. It is possible to obtain an economic return on getting patents through the sale or exploitation of the licenses to the third parties.
- It is an instrument of the advancement and technological development. The advantages they grant are compensation for the costly process of research and technological development.
- By getting patents, you get temporary monopoly, as the state grants a ‘temporary and territorial monopoly’ to encourage research and innovation.
When the period of the patent protection expires, the invention goes into the public domain and can be used freely. In this sense, knowing the patent information system, results in the use of this information in the implementation of new technologies by SMEs, as well as learning about emerging technologies before they appear in the press or in the market and help overcome the difficulties encountered in certain technical stages of a technology.
We hope that these basic concepts have been useful and have been able to dispel doubts about the advantages of getting patents. We end by simply remembering that patenting is not a simple but highly satisfactory procedure because it allows to make profitable all the efforts spent in the development and research.
