If your UK-based business invents new products to market and sell, you may be wondering how to protect these inventions. Luckily, in the UK, patents can protect inventions from copycats in the marketplace. However, you have probably seen the phrase \u2018patent pending\u2019 concerning other people\u2019s products and wondered what it means. This article will give you an introduction to patents and explain what patent pending means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A patent is a form of intellectual property that protects inventions and their applications. Patents cannot protect ideas. If an inventor obtains a patent for their creation, they have the exclusive right to make that product for a maximum of 20 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Note that patents only give territorial rights. This means that if you receive a patent in the UK, your exclusive rights only extend to the UK. For that reason, some inventors will also file applications in overseas countries through the Patent Cooperation Treaty<\/a> or the European Patent Office<\/a> for European countries. Alternatively, inventors can apply for protection in each country where they wish to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patent rights are also valuable business assets that you can sell, license or transfer in the same way as any other business asset<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n \u2018Patent pending\u2019 means someone has applied for a patent on a product, but the UK Intellectual Property Office has not yet granted it. It is the inventor\u2019s way of informing people that they hope to get a patent. Therefore, anyone copying the product will potentially infringe the inventor\u2019s intellectual property rights. Inventors seeking funding for their creations will often use this term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Continue reading this article below the form\n <\/i>\n<\/a>\n\u2018Patent Pending\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n