UK Patent Office

If you intend to apply for a patent, you should not publicly disclose the invention before you file an application at UK Patent Office because this could be counted as prior publication of your invention. Any type of disclosure (whether by word of mouth, demonstration, advertisement or article in a journal), by the applicant or anyone acting for them, could prevent the applicant from getting a patent at UK Patent Office for his invention. It could also be a reason for having the patent revoked by UK Patent Office if one was obtained. It is essential that the applicant only makes any disclosure under conditions of strict confidence. Any conversation you have with patent agents, solicitors or UK Patent Office staff is confidential, so anything you say to any of these people will not count as revealing your invention early.

You may have come across Invention Promoters, firms who offer to help evaluate, develop and market your idea. The UK Patent Office does not give financial assistance to inventors. There are no rules on when a patent should be filed at UK Patent Office. Filing an application early at the UK Patent Office, for instance, during the research phase of an invention can be vital since it establishes a "priority" for the applicant over anyone else who subsequently files an application at the UK Patent Office for the same invention. However, if you file a patent at UK Patent Office early you might make changes to your invention, in which case you would have to re-file your application. Moreover, there can often be important commercial reasons for delaying filing at UK Patent Office until absolutely necessary, when the prototype of your invention is actually made and ready to be put on the market.

The basis of a UK patent application at UK Patent Office is a legal document called a specification. Its contents determine whether UK Patent Office can grant a patent. To file an application at UK Patent Office a patent specification should be prepared, including drawings if these are useful in describing the invention. The specification should contain a full description of your invention. It is absolutely vital that you include all the necessary information about your invention in the description. You cannot make any changes to your specification once you have filed at UK Patent Office your application. It may include claims and abstract or these may be supplied later. If they are supplied later they must not add information to what was originally supplied.

You must also complete a Patents Form 1/77 "Request for Grant of a Patent". It is also essential that you keep for your own records a copy of each document. You should then take or send these documents to the UK Patent Office.

* The description
* The drawings
* The claims
* The abstract
* Patents Form 1/77
* Use of academic papers to file a patent application