There is one kind of home based business that is very different to any other: that of the inventor. If you’ve invented something with the purpose to make money from your home based business, the chances are that you don’t have the resources to mass-produce it yourself – you’ll be needing to send the plans and designs off to someone else to make in their factory. When you do this, though, how can you protect your inventive idea for starting a home based business against theft by them, or anyone else who might see it? The answer is patent registration.
What is a Patent?
A patent is when your government gives you the exclusive right to profit from an invention for a set number of years. If anyone else tries to sell something that is covered by your patent, then you will have the legal right to make them either pay you a licence fee or stop.
Each patent has a patent number – you might have seen ‘Pat No’ printed on some things, followed by this number. You may also have seen ‘patent pending’, which means that the patent has been applied for but not yet granted as you can read from how to get a patent with InventHelp.
Your Invention Must Qualify
Not all inventions can be covered by patents. Check that your invention meets these two requirements:
Is it new and secret? You can’t have showed your invention publicly before you apply for a patent. Whatever you do, don’t take your invention round and demonstrate it to people before you think about patents – you might make it impossible to get one.
Is it non-obvious? Your invention must not be something that would be obvious to experience in your chosen industry. This is to stop people rushing to patent things that anyone could figure out, and then charging high fees for their use.
In addition, you cannot apply for a patent for any of the following: a scientific or mathematical theory or method, a work of art (books, plays, etc. – computer programs are included), a way of doing things (eg. a new business method). Many of these things are, instead, covered by copyright. Patents are intended for actual, physical inventions. Find more useful content on how to patent something with InventHelp as well.
