A patent is a title that protects a technical innovation. An inventive product or process can be protected by a patent.
A patent gives the holder an exclusive right to use an invention for 20 years. Patents demonstrate a company’s capacity for innovation, add value and make it easier to find investors.
A patent may be filed in the name of one or more natural or legal persons. The applicant is the owner of the patent.
To be patentable, an invention must meet the following 3 criteria: novelty (no prior disclosure), inventive step and industrial application.
Before any application is filed, the state of the art must be checked to ensure that the invention is patentable. Once this analysis has been carried out, the patent application can be drafted. The application can then be filed, bearing in mind the need to prevent any pre-filing disclosure.
Prior art searches make it possible to identify, in the field of your invention, published patent literature and non-patent literature likely to describe features of your invention.
The patent may be maintained in force for a maximum of 20 years. After this period, provided that the annual instalments are paid each year, the patent falls into the public domain, meaning that the invention it protected is no longer protected and can be freely exploited by anyone.
The best way to monitor innovations related to your company’s sector of activity is to set up a monitoring programme. This monitoring programme enables you to keep an eye on competitors or aspects related to your innovations. Setting up such a programme will enable you, in particular, to keep abreast of innovations developed by your competitors, so that you can be on the lookout for potential counterfeiters.
In intellectual property law, a trademark is defined as a “sign” used to distinguish the goods or services of a natural or legal person from those of other natural or legal persons. This “sign” may take the form of a word, a name, a slogan, a symbol, etc. or a combination of these elements.
First come, first served! Registering a trademark gives its owner an exclusive right to its sign, in a given market, and therefore to distinguish itself from its competitors, to add value to its creations, to constitute a source of tangible income and to increase its credibility with third parties, in particular investors and customers.
Any individual or legal entity (company, association, etc.).
Among the criteria for validity, the trademark must first and foremost be distinctive (no banal or generic signs), it must be lawful and must not be misleading or contrary to accepted principles of morality.
Before registering a trademark, it is necessary to ensure that it is available, to determine the products and/or services that will be offered by the trademark and to define the desired geographical coverage for the trademark.
- Prevents you from investing in a name that you are not free to use
- Ensures that the proposed sign does not infringe prior rights
- Warns you of any identical or similar prior trade marks already registered that could prevent you from using and registering your trade mark
A brand is protected for 10 years from the date of filing. It may be renewed indefinitely every 10 years. A trademark must be used to prevent it from lapsing.
You can be alerted to any new brand that are identical or similar to yours and monitor a market or the trademark activities of a specific competitor.
If an identical or similar trademark & yours is registered, designating goods and/or services of the same nature, you can take action to have the trademark withdrawn.
Design is a product’s identity, which is crucial to its positioning in the market. In intellectual property law, a design protects the appearance of a product or part of a product: its shape, lines, contours, colours and texture.
Your product is new and not yet known to the public, and you don’t want your creation to be copied and used without your consent. The advantage of registering a design is that you obtain a registration certificate that confirms your rights, protects you from counterfeiters and enables you to defend yourself in the event of an attack by a third party.
Any PA or legal entity (company, association, etc.) can register a design. The product designer, if not the applicant, must be identified.
Certain criteria must be met to register a design:
- New
- Originality
- Does not contain only purely technical features
- Respect for the law, public order and accepted principles of morality
Before filing, you will need to determine the product or parts to be protected, check the validity criteria and prepare the necessary reproductions.
A third party can go to court at any time to challenge the novelty or originality of a design. A prior design search is therefore a necessary preliminary step to check, before filing, that there are no previous designs likely to destroy the novelty and originality of your pre-existing design. The search can also be useful in litigation proceedings, to establish the anteriority of a competitor’s design.
A registered design is protected for a minimum period of 5 years, renewable every 5 years for a maximum period of up to 25 years. The maximum period of protection varies from country to country.
As the owner of a registered and protected design, you can prevent any third party from using it, offering it for sale, manufacturing it or importing it into the territory in which your design is protected. You can also take action against a third party whose product incorporates the main protected features of your design. Finally, your registration certificate will be very useful when dealing with customs authorities.