Patents
A patent gives the owner (patentee) the right to prohibit the production of a product or the application of a process. This prohibition right is granted by a patent office and means that a third party (competitor) is not allowed to produce a patented product or to apply a patented process. The patentee can decide to grant licences under the patent (against a certain price) or can forbid someone to enter the market. A patent is granted only to something that is new, has an inventive step (is surprising) and has an industrial application (technical aspect).
Novelty is the most important thing. If you have a possible patentable invention, your patent attorney is the first person who should know about this! (S)he is the expert in the first place to check for you whether your idea is novel on first sight and is then able to draft a patent application and to file it. The first date of filing is important; from that date your invention is (provisionally) protected and in case the patent application is continued within one year in another country the first date of filing remains valid as the date your idea has been recorded. Furthermore the patent attorney represents the inventor during prosecution before the patent office and handles the payments, for instance for the renewals of the patent rights. Of course, as the client, you will always be consulted.
The patent attorney of Amsterdams Octrooibureau Visser-Luirink B.V. (AOVL) is entitled to act both before the Dutch and European Patent Office. Besides this, she is a member of the Examination Committee of the European Qualifying examination to be a European patent attorney. If you wish to obtain patent protection in other countries, for example in the US, then this will be done in close collaboration with a network of local patent attorneys. At least as important as the patent protection of an own product or process is the question whether the invention to be commercialised is free of third parties’ patent rights. For an opinion in this field you are also at the right address with our patent firm.
Want to know more?
Following links could be of interest:
Dutch Patent Office
European Patent Office
Institute of Dutch Patent attorneys
Patent Database
Patent Wiki