- Sun Jan 15, 2012 7:10 am
#138262
As I understand it...
You can't patent a specific product as such. What you can patent is a new, novel idea or method for achieving some useful result, and your product is an embodiment of that idea. A patent application has to include specific details of how the desired result is achieved, and normally you would be expected to have built a working, demonstrable prototype of your invention to prove that it works. The patent protection covers the basic principle of operation, not the specific, individual product.
This is a good thing because it means an inventor can produce a whole range of products based on a patentable idea, and doesn't have to apply to protect each one individually. It also means a properly worded patent will protect you from a competitor who may do all their own development work from scratch and come up with a completely new product (ie. one which doesn't actually copy any individual components of yours), but which nevertheless works in the way you originally thought of and patented.
So, for example:
- you can't patent, say, "a machine for travelling back in time", because you'd need to give specific details of how it would actually be achieved.
- you also can't patent something which is obvious. This is a bit subjective, but the basic principle is that you need have have actually had an original idea with some merit, and which actually deserves protection.
- nor can you patent something which has been done before ("prior art" is the term used). It has to be novel. So you can't patent the wheel, even if you do design a new one. (Your particular design could, however, be covered by copyright - so you'd have a case against someone manufacturing identical copies of your wheel). Note: this is why it's so important NOT to publish any details of what you have in mind before the patent is applied for. If you need to tell anyone about it, make sure you're protected by a non-disclosure agreement. Whatever you do, don't post details here!
- you could, however, patent a method for travelling back in time using wheels - provided, of course, that you discover a way to do it. It's not been done before, so you're OK on that front, but you'd have to be able to explain in deep technical detail exactly how you achieve time travel using wheels, and you'd need to have built a working prototype which works in the way you've described. Get the patent right and your invention would be protected; nobody could legally come along and produce an identical copy of your product, nor could they build their own time travel machine which used wheels in the way you've described. Another company could, however, build a time travel machine which used high voltage arcs to achieve the end result instead, and did not use wheels.
So: whether or not you can get patent protection depends on what kind of product you have in mind. If you plan on using pre-assembled modules as building blocks for your product, that's OK provided that what you're actually building uses them in a novel way. You don't gain any rights over the design of the module when you buy it, but you can protect the way in which you use the module.
