A patent is a monopoly granted by a state to the first inventor of a new invention in return for a full disclosure of the invention. The invention must be capable of industrial application. There are a number of things that should be noted in this definition.
“monopoly granted by a state ” – Each country grants its own patent rights covering its own territory. Thus an Irish patent gives protection only in the Republic of Ireland.
Phrases such as “world wide patent” are meaningless. There is no such thing. One has to apply separately in each country. There are two partial exceptions to this.
- There is a European Patent Office (nothing to do with the EU) which permits a harmonised approach in certain European countries at the application stage. One ends up however with a “bundle” of individual national patents each only having effect in a single country.
- One can use what is known as the Patent Co-operation Treaty. A single application in one country under this treaty can designate many other countries and preserve the right to file applications in them. It does not of itself lead to individual patents and lapses if not followed up by way of national applications.
There is not as yet (May 2006) a “European Community Patent” – i.e. a single patent covering all EU countries. Proposals for one have been under discussion for many years and it is probable that such an entity will eventually come into existence.
“first inventor” - Patent protection can only be granted to the first person to invent a particular invention. This applies internationally. You cannot, therefore, see a new product invented by someone else in the US, for example, and patent it in Ireland.
“new invention” – to qualify for patent protection an invention must be novel and have an inventive step in its creation. Novelty means that the invention must not have been disclosed in any public way prior to the patent application being filed. An inventive step means that if an expert in the technical area was presented with the problem and all pre-existing knowledge in that area, it would not have been obvious how to solve the problem. Some element of “inspiration” is required. Very basic improvements to an existing product will not normally be patentable therefore.
“full disclosure” - The State makes a bargain with the inventor whereby in return for fully disclosing all the details of the invention in the patent specification, the State will grant a patent. Thus the inventor gets monopoly rights for 20 years. The patent system publishes the details of the invention so that the world store of technical knowledge is improved.
“industrial application” - Essentially this means that the invention must be useful. Mere technical curiosities are not patentable. Other types of developments are specifically excluded; for example; scientific or mathematical theories, medical treatments and plant or animal varieties. Methods of playing games and business methods generally are ruled out in many countries. In some countries the basic programming of a computer is not normally regarded as being patentable. That does not, however, rule out all software (refer to the factsheet ‘Intellectual Property Rights – Protection of Software’). One significant country where patentability is more lossely defined is the United States.
"Short Term Patents" – In Ireland and in some other countries it is possible to get a form of patent protection that is easier and cheaper to obtain than a full patent. To obtain a short term patent it is necessary only to submit to the Patent Office an application and accompanying specification and fulfil certain administrative requirements. The application is not examined for novelty and inventiveness however. Only where the holder of such a patent wishes to take legal action against an alleged infringer does this take place.
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