Have a brilliant idea that was never advertised or seen anywhere before?! In that case, this might just be your lucky day and a clear opportunity to get some reward for your intellectual mind and proceed to patent the idea. Why is it needed you ask? Well, in the ever-growing industry and earth populated to its full, you might not be the only one having this idea! Patent provides a proof of you as the inventor and gives you full rights to your idea.
What can I patent you ask? Well, pretty much anything that has an original new method and research. Furthermore, you do not need a complete product to patent it, any idea or method can be legalized to be your own, for example an original recipe for cooking an apple pie. This apple pie mix patent was registered in 1985 by a Fruit Packers company.
Patents will cost you however. The documentation has to be done carefully and to make a good patent, it will have to be approved by Europe and US patent offices, which will cost initially to file for patent and to renew the patent during specified periods of time. The documentation can also be done by a professional attorney or lawyer, but be careful with your patent description and make sure to check the written up documents as if the lawyer doesn’t understand the patent idea, it is very easy to get some key phrases and words wrong, for correcting which they will definitely make sure to take extra few grand from your pocket. Therefore, only consider getting a patent if you can afford it! It will not always succeed to be approved and you will need to make sure that there’s a market out there for your patented idea.
Patents are extremely important and valued in big companies and businesses today. Every big business will patent few dozens of patents each year to make sure nobody else can use their technology or ideas and make sure not to be sued by anyone for using an idea which was patented by someone else. As a small company, it’s extremely useful to have a few patents up your sleeve! This will give you bargaining opportunity with bigger competitor companies or might even interest them into buying your business.
Overall, patent your idea if it’s an original work, which will be useful in any particular market. Make sure to check that similar patent does not already exist, you can check patent offices listed here, or on any search engine. More useful information on patents can be also found here.