Protect your invention

If you patent your invention, you can exercise the right to exclusivity and thus prevent others from making acts of manufacture, use, offers to sell or import the patented product or process, without your consent.

The patent of invention is an intangible good. Like a property title of a real estate or a car, it can be transferred being sold, inherited or even given away through a cession of rights (free of charge in the latter case).

The invention patent is applied to an object, a method, an apparatus for manufacturing the object, a chemical compound, a microorganism, etc. and must comply with the three requirements: novelty, inventive step and industrial application.

On the other hand, a Utility Model must comply only with two patentability requirements: novelty and industrial application. It is given to the inventor to protect innovations introduced to tools, work tools or objects that serve practical uses.

BEFORE THE PRESENTATION

It is advised before starting the application process, perform a background search.

REQUIREMENTS

1. Patent application form
2. Cover,
3. Descriptive report: technical description of the invention, headed by the patent title,

• a description of the technical field to which the invention belongs,
• a description of the state of the art in that field known to the inventor, preferably indicating the documents that disclosed it,
• a brief description of the figures included in the drawings, if any,
• a detailed and complete description of the invention, highlighting the advantages with respect to the known state of the art, understandable to a person skilled in the art.

4. Statement of claim that must contain one or more claims.
5. Drawings
6. Summary of the description of the invention
7. Technical sheet
8. Payment
9. Certified copies of the priority or priorities invoked in the application.
10. Translation of all the aforementioned documents that are in a foreign language.
11. Only if applicable: Certificate of deposit of the microorganism issued by the depository institution
12. Fund Examination Payment

PROCESS

Publication of the application: 18 months after the start of the procedure, it is published in the Patent Bulletin. From this moment, anyone can access its content and submit observations within the next 60 days. These observations made by third parties act as recommendations to be evaluated by the examiners, but can not by themselves stop the process.

Fund Exam: There is a term of 18 months (counted from the presentation) to pay the Fund Examination fee.

The examiners will conduct a search in national and international databases to determine if your application meets the patentability requirements.

Concession and publication: It is the last step by which you obtain the patent. The concession is published as granted in the Patent Bulletin.

TERMS

How long does it take to process? The procedure takes: 5 years

• Granting of a patent: 5 years (average).
• Granting of a utility model: 3 years (average).

VALIDITY

Patent: 20 years
Utility model: 10 years.

In both cases, the deadlines begin to run from the date of submission of the application. They are granted only once, they are not renewable and when the expiration date they become public domain.