St Michael’s Mount, Cornwall – protecting your ideas and innovations can help secure your path to success.
Intellectual property comes in various forms, and patents can be one of the most powerful.
Implementing a well thought out patent strategy can reap significant rewards for you and your business. A granted patent can even help to lower your overall corporation tax bill – interested?
What is a patent?
A patent is a property right which provides a monopoly over an invention. And an invention can be… all sorts of things, actually. A brand-new material, a never-before-seen arrangement of parts in a machine, an incremental improvement to a conventional device, a new method of manufacturing something, a new use of a known medicine, and so on.
Admittedly, not everything is patentable, but patents can be granted on all sorts of weird and wonderful things, as long as the key inventive concept is new and non-obvious over anything that is publicly known.
Perhaps you’re developing an improved product or process right now – if it’s different enough from known products/processes, if there’s a technical and/or commercial advantage to its difference(s) or USP(s), if it’s something that someone could reverse-engineer, it’s something you should patent.
Why are patents valuable?
Put another way, why can a patent – words on a piece of paper (or screen) – add substantial value to your business and encourage outside investment?
Because, in a granted patent, the right words give you the right to stop anyone else from copying your invention. And that can be very lucrative.
If you have invested considerable funds in brainstorming, designing, prototyping, refining, testing, finalising, manufacturing, marketing and selling a critical new product (or similar steps for a process), it makes sense to add one more step: protecting it. Otherwise, you’ve done the hard work of forging a new path, and competitors can immediately follow and copy you – quickly, easily, and freely. Your new market opportunity becomes their new market opportunity. After all, if you see value in pursuing your invention, others will see the value in copying it.
A patent is one of the core commercial weapons you need to tackle unauthorised copying. Indeed, having a patent, or even a pending patent application, can deter competitors from trying to copy your invention in the first place.
Last, but absolutely not least, having a granted British patent opens your door to the Patent Box.
What is the Patent Box?
The Patent Box is a UK government scheme. It allows you to reduce your overall corporation tax in the UK on profits from patented inventions, usually down from 25% to 10%.
It doesn’t matter if your patent protects the greatest thing since sliced bread (a slicing machine invented in 1928), or if the scope of protection is narrower than pencil lead (patented at various times, e.g., in 1795), if your granted British patent covers your product, then you can apply for corporation tax relief on global sales of your patented product.
There are some nuances that depend on whether you patent a product or a process, and you do have to have undertaken ‘qualifying development’ on the invention. But the crux is that you can leverage a granted patent to make a profitable product even more profitable.
What is the best strategy?
There is no ‘one size fits all’ patent or intellectual property (IP) strategy. Different strategies will be beneficial in different ways, depending on the size of your company, the sector(s) you operate in, and the types of inventions you devise, among others. That said, there are some things you can do which are generally part of any robust patent strategy.
One of the most critical things is to keep your invention secret until you have applied for a patent. Information about your invention should be carefully controlled before that. Any public disclosure before you file could wipe out your patent later on. Your new website page? The slick LinkedIn® post? The flashy Instagram® reel? Keep them under lock and key until you’ve filed a patent application.
It is also important to understand that a single patent may not secure your market for the long term. You will keep innovating, but so will your competitors. If they can develop an improved version of your original invention, then that is theirs to patent. They may not be free to commercialise it because of your original patent, but their patent can stop you from improving your own product/process. If you patent key incremental improvements as you go, you can lock your competitors out and maintain your competitive edge.
Do you engage contractors to develop things for you? Check that their contracts assign all relevant IP rights to you, and that they are legally obliged to sign supporting documents where needed (even years down the line).
Have you checked if your competitors have any IP rights? It can save blood, sweat and tears to do a patent search at an early stage – you might avoid being sued for patent infringement.
Registered designs and trade marks can reinforce protection on your products and brand. Keeping good records can support claims in respect of unregistered design rights and copyright. IP insurance can give you ammunition to defend against allegations of infringement and to pursue enforcement action. As you can see, there are many different factors at play.
What this means for you?
The more important your invention, the more you have invested, the more you should commit to protecting that invention and investment. Crafting and following a bespoke patent/IP strategy can guide your efforts in getting to market and staying there successfully, while mitigating commercial risks and, perhaps, even getting a helping hand from HMRC.
To learn more about how Albright IP can help you protect your inventions, develop a tailored patent strategy, and maximise the commercial value of your intellectual property, contact one of our friendly and experienced patent attorneys via email: info@albright-ip.co.uk , by telephone on +44 (0) 1242 691 801, or using our Contact Us Form below. They will be happy to advise and guide you.
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