Innovation takes a lot of hard work and time, and it is only fair that innovators profit from their inventions for at least some time before other entities can. As a result, governments worldwide have laws geared toward protecting the intellectual property of innovators and creators.
There are several protections offered to innovations, the main ones being copyright, trademark, and patent protections. This guide focuses on patent protections and how they apply globally.
3 Things You Should Know
- What Do Patent Protections Mean?
Patents are part of the four main protections extended to innovators under IP laws, but their application may differ from country to some extent. A general definition of a patent is an exclusive right granted to an innovator to profit from a product or process that offers a new way of doing things or a new solution to a technical problem.
For an invention to qualify for patent protection, it must be novel, non-obvious, and useful. Upon registration, patents do not run indefinitely; they run for the time specified under specific country’s laws. After the lapse of the protection period, the innovation becomes open to everyone else.
- Protections Are Limited to the Country of Registration Boundaries
Patent protections are limited to geographical boundaries. That means if you register your inventions in one country and another person from a different country copies what you have invented, there may not be much you can do to keep them from profiting from your invention.
The good news is you can register your patents in all countries where you hope to have a presence. If you are a startup, registering patents in many countries can be expensive and somewhat out of reach. But you do not have to register your patent in every country to enjoy global protection.
Global intellectual property agencies, such as WIPO, allow innovators to register their innovations once and enjoy protections in all member countries, currently at 193.
- You Are Responsible for Policing Your Patents
After securing patent protections on a national and global scale, you are left responsible for policing your patents. This means that governments or registration agencies will not proactively get involved in preventing infringements. Instead, they will take action after you file an infringement complaint.
However, governments may offer some form of policing through specialized agencies such as customs and border protections that prevent infringed goods from entering a country. Acquiring patent protection also means you can license others to profit from your inventions for a fee.
Patent Law in Canada
In Canada, patent laws are governed by the Canadian Patent Act and the Patent Rules and are enforced by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. If you are considering innovation patenting in Canada, it is important first to understand the process. Like in other countries, your invention has to be novel, non-obvious, and useful to qualify.
You will need to conduct a patent search in the Canadian patent database and other databases to establish that your innovation is new. If your innovation qualifies, you will need to pay applicable fees, after which you get a certificate as proof of ownership of your innovation.
Patent rights in Canada run for 20 years from the registration date, after which anyone else can copy your innovation. Also, it is important to note that patent rights are granted on a first-to-file basis, meaning the first person to file for patent registration gets the right even when someone else may have had the idea first.
Final Words
If you have an invention that you believe is world-changing in some way, it is important to get protections that will help ensure that someone else doesn’t profit from it without your consent. The ideas mentioned above are only a small part of what patent protections entail, so working with an IP expert through the process is a good idea.
