Editor’s note: This article was first published in April 2011. The fee range (€3 to €665) is from that time. Spain’s patent law has changed since (Patent Law 24/2015, in force since April 2017), and the European Unitary Patent started in 2023, so steps should be checked against current procedures.
Imagine you’re a passionate entrepreneur with an innovative business idea that needs funding. You go looking for financing and get turned down, but at the same time the investor who, for whatever reason, didn’t want to come into your business copies your business idea or invention. He has capital, he has contacts and he liked your idea, so by the time you’re ready to launch your product, another company may already have it up and running.
To avoid this situation, which has happened countless times throughout business history, it’s advisable to register a patent for your idea or invention. Here are the steps and requirements for registering a patent.
Every country has offices where you can register a patent. In Spain, you need to go to the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas, OEPM).
Requirements for registering a patent
Registering a patent isn’t very different from drawing up a business plan, because you have to show that your product:
- Is new worldwide.
- Has business potential.
- Has an industrial application.
Once your product or invention meets these three requirements, you can move on to the next step. Note: what looks to you like the business of the century has to be backed by a good presentation, so that the people who decide whether to grant the registration see it the same way, because the decision isn’t up to you.
With that said, the next step is for a patent attorney to file it, paying a fee that ranges from €3 to €665. You’ll need to submit your application, along with the fee, a detailed description of the invention and how the idea is used, and it goes through what is practically an examination to confirm that the application is in order.
The office will then carry out a search to check that no identical or similar patent has already been registered. Once the invention has been shown to be unique in the world, around 18 months will pass before your patent appears in a database that anyone can access.
Next, a group of examiners will check that the invention meets the requirements of the European Patent Convention.
Three judges will decide whether to grant the patent protection. If they do, your patent will be recorded in the European Patent Bulletin.
Even once it’s granted, that isn’t the end of it: you’ll have to validate the patent in each designated state, and anyone has nine months to file a notice of opposition to the patent.
In some cases, this process can take up to five years and end in endless legal battles over a patent. During that legal battle you can start manufacturing your product, and a judge would decide whether another company can manufacture it at the same time while your patent registration is still pending. However, as has sometimes happened, until a ruling is issued the competing company can also manufacture it and make money from it.
The road to patent registration is undoubtedly a hard one when you have an innovative product.
Further reading
- How to be a successful entrepreneur
- The 15 commandments of the entrepreneur
- Business and poker: what do they have in common?
- Profitable business ideas
Featured image: Luis García, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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