protecting my business idea.. patents?

Any update on this one.....I just had a few ideas myself but they are merely thoughts & dreams at present.
 
Just a question how many peoples ideas have actually been stolen? and whats to stop someone slightly modifying your idea but enough to get away with it legally. Unless you are replacing the wheel just get started is my opinion. tell everyone and get feed back as has been said patenenting an idea you think is great dont make for a business even if its a fantastic idea dont mean people will want to pay enough for it to make a profitable business.
My 2 cents get it out there asap with a proto type and actually sell some to see if people will buy it and buy it again/recommend it to their friends if its that type of product.
China will copy anything I or anyone else ask them too and all that will do is tie you up in the courts trying to sue people paying lawyers etc. you will have competiton regardless but it should improve your business in the long term .
Dont waste time and money on trying to stop people copying your idea because they will, just be ready to prove your is the original and best.

I'm sure other will say otherwise but thats my view.
 
I studied a little bit on patents and IP as part of my engineering degree and it's a black art-you don't want to accurately describe your product (because then it's easy to make one from the patent application!) but you do want your patent to adequately protect your product. If you read a few patents you'll see how cryptic some of them can be when describing quite simple products. That's why Patent Attorneys charge so much.

As has been mentioned a few times-the patent is worthless unless you can defend it in court(s) but you still need to have it in place if you are going to licence it to a big manufacturer (who will presumably be able to defend it if it's infringed upon).
 
I studied a little bit on patents and IP as part of my engineering degree and it's a black art-you don't want to accurately describe your product (because then it's easy to make one from the patent application!) but you do want your patent to adequately protect your product. If you read a few patents you'll see how cryptic some of them can be when describing quite simple products. That's why Patent Attorneys charge so much.

As has been mentioned a few times-the patent is worthless unless you can defend it in court(s) but you still need to have it in place if you are going to licence it to a big manufacturer (who will presumably be able to defend it if it's infringed upon).
 
Hope it works out for you!
Another thing you might consider is registering a dot com (and maybe a dot ie) address.
Register your business name with cro.ie - it will cost you €20 but will protect the name you choose and it will also provide you with the certification to register the dot ie domain name.
 

Registering a business name will NOT give that name any protection; registering a COMPANY name will protect the company's name - to a degree. Be careful...!
 
hey guys, well heres the latest.

ive done alot of patent research online.... discussed it on a few forums, and have been in touch with a few enterprise boards.....

my conclusion.... patents are very very expensive and labourous....

if your like me, thinking of starting up a company, and dont have large amounts of cash... well, i cant really see them being an option.

yes, id love to have one...... but i cant really see it being feesable.

ive heard reports of patents costing hundreds of thousands of dollars....

im not in a position to make a go of this yet, fingers crossed in a couple of months...

one bit of advice i did get is.... send your ideas/notes via registered mail, to your solicitor.... aparently this proves you own intelectual property...

ive no idea if this amounts to anything, in the event of your idea being stolen..... maybe someone on here can shed some light?

i agree with fmc... just get your idea out there, and deliver the best service you can.....

Pope John 11..... i hope you put your ideas into practice... im sure i will, all the best.
 
Check out the DIT Hothouse, they can help you out with patents ref costs.
They can also pay for the full patent and then give you a license to use it.
[broken link removed]
 
hhhhhhhhhh said:
Check out the DIT Hothouse, they can help you out with patents ref costs.
They can also pay for the full patent and then give you a license to use it.
[broken link removed]
Click to expand...

cheers, yes, was on to hothouse... i plan to sit down and have a talk with them about this.
 
I know a businessman who spent over 1 million dollars on various patents, took him years to even start getting a return, his main patents were useless in the end as the product versus cost didn't add up even though the idea was great and potentially a blockbuster. His main revenue came in the end from Japan....
Start developing the prototype biz model/product now and you this will allow you to see the strong and weak points, then you can focus the patent on the revenue generating parts. Generally you must apply for patents within 1 year of making your idea publicly known (that could be as simple as a few lines in an e-mail or online forum). You must apply for US patents and other overseas patents within 1 year of local country patent, as far as I know. The big patents to get- EU, US, Japan, China... depends on your biz of course.
To fund the patent application you should find a business partner and offer to put his name on the patent (50:50 with you) in return for the funding which is fair as it's a very risky business. IMPORTANT: PUT THE PATENT IN YOUR NAME, NOT IN COMPANY NAME, THAT WAY IT CAN NEVER BE TAKEN AWAY FROM YOU.

It costs a fortune to defend a patent so it's only as valuable as the amount of money you are able to defend it for unless you can find a buyer to take it from you (read James Dyson's book about the invention of his unique vacuum cleaner for an interesting overview of patents and business).
To be honest you need to start first to get a real world view of the biz you intend to participate in....
 
agree.. looks like a very costly road to go down....

do you know anything about sending your notes, to yourself, or your solicitor via registered post?

i´m sure i read on here somewhere, that this can give you some sort of intelectual property protection?
 

That will stop someone else who tries to say they came up with the idea. It may prove it's your idea but it won't stop others copying it.
 
The only thing posting it to yourself does is provide some manner of proof of prior creation. This doesn't help always with patents (see wikipedia blurb). It also doesn't really help with copyright, except that the fact that you independently created it before a certain date may be useful to defend infringement proceedings brought against you (as opposed to being helpful for you to bring proceedings against someone else). It may be useful if someone rips off your work but it's only persuasive, not dispositive.

It's certainly no harm to post it to yourself and keep the sealed envelope somewhere safe.

Unless you have filed a patent, you have no protection for your idea (outside of trade secret protection) so could only sue someone if they deliberately stole YOUR idea (rather than them coming up with it independently themselves).

Also note that you do NOT have a year from first disclosure to file a patent application in the EU - the only permitted disclosures are at certain approved exhibitions, which are unlikely to apply to your case.

If I was you, I'd do a consultation with a patent attorney (if your patent would be applicable in the US, I'd go to a US attorney rather than an Irish patent agent) and have a chat with them. They'll often do it for free or little money as an initial consult, banking on you going ahead with the patent - you'd have to bear in mind that they would have a vested interest in your applying for a patent, but you will definitely get some good information.

If you talk to DIT, make sure you have a signed NDA before you disclose the patent. I'd also contact Enterprise Ireland for advice (it may be useful) - ditto for the NDA if you go to EI.

If you are prepared to do a lot of the work in drafting the patent application yourself, you can cut down the costs of patent attorneys significantly. But, as you and others have mentioned, it's costly to even sue someone for infringement, even if you have a patent...
 
Just curious, where can you check up on all previous patents for EU, US, ASIA, AUSTRALIA etc?

Is there a common list that one can check...or is it impossble to do this check without forking out a lot of cash.

Any thoughts
 
I don't believe there's any free list you can search for all jurisdictions but you can search individually in the US [broken link removed] and Australia here (for example). It's difficult to do a comprehensive search yourself. Google, it ain't...
 
I had a patent registered in the 90s, not to protect a business idea, but to facilitate tax avoidance by my client.
 
I have three very simple questions:

1. How long does it take to have an irish patent filed & for that matter how long does it take to get a european or US patent filed

2. Has anyone from experience, a list of steps one could take to achieve & protect their patent correctly

3. I would not have the appropiate funds to manufacture my idea, its currently been manufactured world wide at present, but my patent idea alters whats been manufactured. Is it possible for me to negotiate with these manufacturing companies, not one but many, to make my business a success, ie. gain a % of their profits etc
 
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