ENGINEERING PATENTS
-Swapna Sundar
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and
applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge,
in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials
and processes.
The importance
of engineering and modern human history cannot be discounted. From James Watt’s
steam engine, the ancient printing presses of the Chinese, to the most
ingenious inventions of the 20th century such as electricity, auto mobiles,
bridges, air travel and architectural ingenuity are all the result of
engineering innovation. Patterns in engineering may relate to simple devices
such as hammers, dental floss dispensing devices, and moulded plastic
containers to more complex inventions such as turbocharger devices, medical
devices, torque converters, vehicle lighting and mirrors, satellite deployment
mechanisms, engine air flow management procedures and processes etc.
In addition to
protecting the mechanical article itself, patterns can be filed and prosecuted
for methods of manufacture of the devices as well as methods of using an
controlling the mechanical devices, in
certain jurisdictions. Further, all manufacturing processes, for example, metal
working and treatment, printing, textile manufacturing, etc. are regarded under
mechanical patents.
The future of
mechanical means, like those of business methods of those relating to the
Internet and e-commerce, is uniformly bright in various sectors including
automotive, robotics, printing technology, textiles and manufacturing.
Are patent expensive?
Most SMEs in the
manufacturing sector consider that the inexpensive and difficult task.
Embarking on a road to innovation and patenting could in certain cases lead the
company to spend vast sums of money on research and development, patent office
fees, attorneys professional fees, renewal fees and then spend virtually
endless amounts of money litigating with infringers, but there are
other alternatives.
The way to limit
IP costs is to be very judicious with a protection mechanism that you intend to
use. Some ideas are:
1.
Protect trade secrets: if
disclosure has the effect of educating a competitor and how the invention is to
be built or used, it is better not to disclose the invention. Secondly, if it
is impossible to detect infringement, the invention or idea is properly not
appropriate for patenting. Trade secrets must be protected with clear policies
of disclosure on a need-to-know basis within and outside the company.
2.
Protect the ideas with the
highest priority: it is not necessary to protect every detectable idea. Often
only one or two key ideas would have to be infringed by the competitor in order
to copy the bulk of the product. Even if there are many patentable innovations
in the product, it may be important to identify those with the highest priority
and protect them.
3.
Reducing the preparation cost:
do as much research as possible into the prior art, including Internet
searches, patent searches, and research competitor’s products. Define the
differences between the invention and the prior art. Define the exact features
that need to be covered from a competitive standpoint as well as a functional
standpoint. This definition will be further refined by the patent professional
during the patent preparation and prosecution stages.
4.
Have a business plan: prosecute
only those parties which have strategic importance for your company, and will
help you to overcome competition. If the patent or idea that you have is not
crucial to the core business of your company, look for licensing opportunities.
5.
Find a firm that suits your
needs: the biggest falls may not have time for smaller clients or price their
services very high. It also not give priority to small companies or individual
inventors. For budgeting and management purposes, consider hiring a firm that
gives fixed fee quotes as opposed to paying by the hour. The former method
encourages the firm to be efficient and constrains the costs, while the second
method is often abused at the expense of the client.
Also preparing and filing your own patent and prosecuting it
in-house may be less expensive initially, it may prove costly as there are
considerable risks involved in filing and prosecuting applications without a
trained professional. This is a decision you would have to make based on your
understanding of the in-house skills and competences required prosecuting your
patent.
6.
Follow the process: the longer
it takes for the preparation and filing of your patent, the longer it will take
to launch a product on the market. There would be delays such as in identifying
specific threats from the competition and analysing prior art, however once
these crucial steps are done it is essential to keep the timeline prescribed by
your attorney. It may help to decide in advance who the applicant of the patent
is in India, it is possible for the promoter of a company to file the patent
and subsequently license it to the company. However in the US, it is essential
for the inventor to be the applicant.
7.
Monitoring of the patent: this
includes delays in prosecution, other steps such as filing of patents under the
patent cooperation Treaty or Paris Convention treaty, and staying up-to-date on
the timelines. Failure to keep to the timelines may prove fatal to the
prosecution and in many cases. One example is, the Indian patent office
requires the filing of a request for examination within four years of the
filing of the application. Failure to file a request for examination within
four years would result in the application being treated as abandoned by the
patent office.
8.
Enforcement of the patent: the
first of an endorsement of the patent is vigilance. The cost of enforcing a
patent is very high whether in India or in any other country. It is essential
for any pattern to be aware that if this product is going to succeed in the
market you will be competition. One way to avoid the disastrous consequences of
cheap counterfeit products in the market is to build a brand that is
recognisable and trusted by the consumers. A constant innovation model may also
help in keeping the patent is invention ahead of the competition in the market.
Getting a strong
mechanical patent
A strong mechanical patent is one that solves a crucial problem for
the consumer and a significantly different from all other solutions provided in
the prior art. Primary in the attempt to get a strong mechanical patent is
keeping ahead of the technology, and keeping abreast of the evolving technology
trend in academia and industry.
Many small companies in India are tying up with governmental and
private universities, research establishments and incubation centres in order
to acquire new technologies "hot off the oven". Technology from
universities and integration centres with the cheaper to acquire than licensing
the same technology from industry. However, they may require industrial level
scaling up, or further development which will be an expensive proposition small
company. The government offers several grants, soft loans and integration
opportunities to translate academic technology development into industrial
inventions.
The MSME ministry, the Department of biotechnology, the Department
of industry and science and the various directorates at state level can help
with these initiatives.
Copyright Swapna Sundar, 2012
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