The patent is that document through which you can declare that you are the legitimate inventor of a product or idea. Under patent law, once the practice is approved you will have the exclusive right to make, sell and exploit the idea for 20 years. Patents are expensive, usually requiring thousands of dollars in registration fees and legal fees. Some inventors decide to try to sell an idea without first patenting it, managing to earn and thus avoiding any possible expense. The only way to make sure your idea stays protected is to keep it secret; however, there are other solutions that allow you to protect it for a short time as you develop an action plan. Learn how to protect your ideas without a patent.
Steps
Step 1. Determine the owner of the idea
If you and another person (or a group of people) have an idea, get together to decide how to protect it. You will need the full cooperation of everyone involved with the invention.
Step 2. Find out if your idea can be patented
To get a patent, you need to prove that it is a useful, new and innovative idea in that industry. If you can't prove it, it's unlikely you'll be able to sell the idea directly; the best thing to protect it then is to start your own company that benefits from it.
Step 3. Don't talk about the idea in public
Even if you are looking for potential investors or contracts, the best way to get an idea stolen is to talk about it publicly. Other people may appropriate your idea and decide to patent it.
If you haven't applied for the patent yet, the company you're trying to sell the idea to may steal it from you and decide to patent it themselves
Step 4. Hire a lawyer to get a non-disclosure agreement
A patent attorney will be able to draw up a contract that offers you the best protection, which is a document that people will have to sign before you can present your idea.
Keep in mind that a nondisclosure agreement usually lasts from a few months up to 5 years. Make sure you are ready to exploit your idea before you start talking about it in public
Step 5. Ask anyone who wants to hear the idea to sign the nondisclosure agreement before exposing it
Employees, investors and third parties could appropriate the idea, improve it and decide to have it patented. Making a nondisclosure agreement prevents people from talking about the idea and developing it further.
Step 6. Don't allow public use of your idea
Allowing the public to use or develop the idea before the patent will not allow you to protect it. If you try to get a patent, but the idea has already been used publicly, it will be difficult to prove that it is your idea.
Step 7. Apply for a provisional patent
You can file a description, design and declaration of the idea or product with the Italian Patent and Trademark Office (UIBM), which will allow you to use the "Patent pending" entry for 12 months. Go to the UIBM website and be prepared to pay an amount of a few hundred euros, depending on the size of the invention.
Filing a provisional patent gives you 12 months to try to sell your idea or to apply for an official patent. In this case, the costs are between 500 and 10,000 euros. The provisional patent cannot be renewed
Step 8. Consider investing in a patent
If you want to try to protect your idea so you can sell it, know that a company is more likely to buy an idea that will continue to be protected for 20 years. You can consider it an initial investment that will pay for itself when you manage to sell the idea (or the company).
Step 9. Enter the idea in a contest
Read the participation rules very carefully, and try to find a company that can help you get a patent in exchange for using your idea. Always remember not to submit your idea without first having a non-disclosure agreement signed.
- Ask your lawyer to check the agreement or terms and conditions before submitting your idea.
- On the web you can find many submissions of competitions. Many companies expose a problem and need ideas to solve it. This in exchange for a contract, money or a patent.
Advice
- Designs and intellectual property used in conjunction with a brand can be registered rather than patented. A registered trademark is less expensive to file than a patent; however, even for the majority of registered trademarks it is necessary to use a lawyer.
- Authorial ideas, such as music, books, software, paintings and other forms of art, are covered by copyright, not by a patent. Unlike patents, copyrighted material is protected for 70 years, instead of 20. Protect the work by making use of copyright, if that is the case for you.
