Patents

What is a patent?

A granted patent provides a monopoly right to prevent others from using an invention without the owner’s consent.

The patent itself is a legal document which defines the invention to be protected and explains how the invention works.  A patent application is initially filed at the UK Intellectual Property Office, who examine it and decide whether it should be granted.

What do patents protect?

A patent is an intellectual property (IP) right which protects technical or functional aspects of a new product or method, i.e. the way something works. In order for a patent to be granted, the invention it relates to needs to be new, inventive, capable of industrial application, and not excluded from protection.

A patent cannot be used to protect an aesthetic creation such as artwork or music, methods of doing business, methods for performing mental acts or computer programmes and the presentation of information, as such. In some cases, these may be protected by other IP rights such as copyright, but it is worth seeking a professional opinion, especially where a computer programme is involved.

What territories are covered?

Patents are territorial rights, i.e. country or region specific. For example, a UK patent will give you the right to prevent somebody from infringing your patent in the UK.

There are regional patents, such as a European patent, which cover multiple countries. Typically, certain criteria must be met as set by each country.

Additionally, an applicant can apply for an international patent application or PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) application. This is a single application which has the effect of multiple filings in multiple jurisdictions. The international application then needs to be entered into each jurisdiction separately for further prosecution.

What is a public disclosure?

A public disclosure is any information that has been made available to the public, in any language, anywhere in the world. A public disclosure of an invention that occurs before filing a patent can prevent you from obtaining a granted patent, as the disclosure can be used as evidence that the invention is not new. Therefore, it is important to keep your invention confidential if you would like to patent it.

To count as disclosure, the disclosure must be enabling. To be enabling, a skilled person would need to be able to perform the invention from the disclosure and their common general knowledge without ‘undue burden’.

Who can apply for a patent?

Anyone can apply for a patent, either singly or jointly. The entity applying for the patent must be a legal entity. This includes individuals, limited companies, and limited liability partnerships (LLPs), but it does not include partnerships.

Whilst anyone can apply for a patent, only an inventor, or somebody entitled to the invention by way of an agreement or by law, is entitled to the granted patent.

If the applicant is not the inventor, the applicant would typically need to prove how they are entitled to the invention. One common scenario is where an employer is the applicant, and they are entitled to an invention made by an employee as part of their job.

What is the priority date and why is it important?

The priority date of subject matter in a patent is the filing date of the patent application which first mentions the subject matter.

Any disclosure made available to the public before the priority date can be cited against a patent application and can prevent it from being granted.

Applications filed by the same applicant up to 12 months after the priority date containing the same subject matter as the original application can be backdated to the date of the original application.

Do I need to use the patent within a certain period?

In general, a patent expires 20 years after the filing date. In most territories, there is no requirement for the proprietor of a patent to use or perform the invention protected by the patent. For example, proprietors of patents may sell the patent to another party like any other piece of property or license others to use the invention in exchange for license fees, rather than perform the invention themselves.

Once the patent application has been filed, what’s next?

In most jurisdictions, once a patent application is filed, the application will undergo search and examination.

In the UK, the UK Intellectual Property Office search and examine an application to decide whether an invention claimed in a patent application is novel and inventive over the prior art.

During this stage, they will issue at least one search report identifying relevant prior art, and at least one examination report setting out their reasoning as to whether they consider the patent to be novel and inventive.

Responses to examination reports will typically involve amending the patent application (for example, to limit the scope of protection) and providing arguments against the objections raised.

Once the examiner is satisfied that the patent is allowable, it will proceed to grant.

When will the application publish?

Generally speaking, a patent application will publish 18 months after its priority date, or earlier if requested. Once the application is published, the public can view the application and the prosecution history.

How long does it take to secure a registration?

The time between filing and grant can vary. Typically, the time to grant will be around 3-5 years from filing. Where prosecution is accelerated, the application may grant sooner, for example within 1 to 2 years.

Can you speed up the registration of a patent?

Prosecution of a patent application can be accelerated in a number of ways. In the UK, an applicant can request accelerated search, accelerated publication and accelerated examination.

Typically, the applicant will need to provide reasons for accelerating prosecution. Acceptable reasons to request acceleration may be if the proprietor becomes aware of an infringer, or if commercial negotiations are dependent on the grant of a patent.

An applicant can also request accelerated prosecution for “green inventions” i.e. inventions that have some environmental benefit.

How much does it cost to obtain a patent?

Costs for a patent application can be difficult to predict. Generally, for a UK patent, there is a cost of approximately £4500 + VAT at the start of the process for drafting and filing the patent application. Additional costs during prosecution can vary depending on the complexity of the case but generally amount to another £1000 to £4000 + VAT spread out over the period up until grant.

In total, the cost is approximately £5500 to £8000 + VAT spread over 5 years with the majority being paid at the start.

Costs can increase significantly if you choose to file overseas applications.

Can I withdraw my patent application?

A patent application can be withdrawn or allowed to lapse at any time before grant if continuing prosecution is no longer advantageous. In the UK, withdrawal takes effect once the request is received by the UK Intellectual Property Office.

However, to prevent an application from being published (and thus being made available to the public) an application must be withdrawn 5 weeks before publication in the UK and Europe, or 15 days before publication in the case of a PCT application.

What happens after registration?

Once a patent has been granted, renewal fees will need to be paid to keep the patent in force. In the UK renewal fees are paid annually.

The patent will then generally expire 20 years after the filing date.

What should I do if I think someone is infringing my patent?

If you have reason to believe a third party is infringing your patent, contact your specialist legal adviser to discuss how you can enforce your IP rights.

How do I know if I am infringing someone else’s patent?

Having a patent does not give you the right to perform an invention, it only gives you the right to prevent someone else from performing the invention.

To know whether you can make your product without significant risk of legal action, it is good practice to identify whether you will infringe someone else’s patent with your product or process. One way to do this is to do a ‘freedom to operate’ search, which can help to flag existing patents that you may be at risk of infringing. Even extensive searching cannot entirely remove the risk that you infringe someone else’s patent, so many companies have IP insurance policies to mitigate this risk.

The contents of published patent applications can be found on patent search engines, such as Google patents or the European Patent Office’s Espacenet service.

Prepared for Ionic Legal by Albright IP Limited in April 2025