Intellectual Property - Patents

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Patents

A patent provides up to 20 years' monopoly for a product or process. It can therefore be an enormously valuable asset for an owner, or a major obstacle (or additional cost by way of royalty fee) for anyone else.

It's often thought that patents are only really relevant in highly technical or specialised "scientific" areas, such as pharmaceuticals and genetic engineering. This isn't the case at all - almost any invention in any business area can be protected by patenting. For example, the digitisation of content and the development of new distribution platforms and channels has seen an explosion of patent protection in all related areas, from disc and playback/reception equipment manufacture, to copy protection, DRM and communications protocols.

As an illustration of the broad application of patents, we have recently advised clients in relation to matters as diverse as book packaging, airline seat design, graphic analysis software, and the compression and encoding of digital audio and video. We have also considered with them the related competition and anti-trust issues which can also be involved, especially as patent pool licensing becomes more frequent.

Whilst the detailed provisions for drafting and filing applications for patents can be complex, the basic principles are clear. We help clients in assessing whether patent protection may be available, as well as, or instead of, other forms of IP. In some cases, it might make more commercial sense for a client not to patent its invention, bearing in mind that the principle is that in exchange for the 20 year monopoly, the invention subsequently falls into the public domain. We also assist them in protecting their ideas pre-filing (for example, when needing to disclose information in order to obtain backing, but without risking the loss of future patent protection - which is only available where something is new and has not been disclosed to anyone at all). After grant, we work with them as they commercialise their products or technology, whether by selling outright, or by granting (or taking) patent licences. Finally, there are times where infringement is suspected, and again we assist clients in enforcing their portfolios and taking action where necessary, or - for people threatened with infringement action - in resisting the claims and investigating the validity of the patents concerned.

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