Can I get a patent for industrial designs? What is the action algorithm? What about the timing of the procedure? What generally gives patent law to its holder as such? Let's try to find answers to all these questions in this article.
Intellectual Property Registration
An invention, like an industrial product, is intellectual property. In order to guarantee the safety of doing business, many companies turn to the government department - Rospatent. It is here that they receive official protection documents for their development.
Why is a procedure needed?
Let's try to find out what gives the owner the exclusive right to an industrial design. Let's start with the definition. By this term is meant a technical device that can be produced in production volumes. If a trademark can be a verbal description, a graphic image, or a combination of a verbal description and a graphic image, then such a product is a concrete material result.
A patent for an industrial design gives its holder the right to produce and sell it. You can also rent the result of intellectual property.
How to protect yourself from competitors
Russian legislation has certain conditions for products that will be submitted in the form of intellectual property results. Industrial designs applied for registration with Rospatent must have a detailed description of the principle of their operation. They must contain novelty in comparison with similar samples that already exist on the market and have passed the official registration procedure. What objects of industrial designs are allowed in registration with Rospatent can be clarified in the department.
Where to begin
In our country, there is a certain algorithm, following which you can become the sole copyright holder of your intellectual property. Before you get the right to an invention, an industrial design must be created, described in detail. Since experts are involved in the examination aimed at identifying the uniqueness of the new invention, the applicant is required, in addition to the sample itself, to provide a detailed description of it, indicate the main technical and operational characteristics, note the difference from analogues that are already used in large-scale production.
Uniqueness check
Further, the author of the industrial design, independently or with the help of the patent office staff, can conduct a preliminary check of the uniqueness and individuality of the created design using all the databases of Rospatent.
After the verification results show that the invention is unique, you can prepare documents for filing an application with Rospatent.
Useful Tips
In order to conduct such a check for free, you can search for open databases, but a more complete and detailed report is easier to obtain by contacting a patent attorney for help. Once all issues related to the verification of uniqueness have been resolved, it will be possible to proceed to the next step - the collection of documents.
Collection of documents
In order to officially register industrial designs, reliable information must be indicated in the questionnaire.If a team of employees participated in the development, information about them is fully indicated in the application for registration.
To obtain a patent right for your intellectual property, which is an industrial design, it is necessary to go through three stages of registration, and each of them can highlight some features.
Sequencing
After the industrial designs are ready, you need to contact Rospatent with a registration application. Further, the applicant will have to be patient and wait for the results of the initial examination. It determines the uniqueness of the invention, the possibility of registering an object as a unique result of intellectual activity.
At this stage, employees of the department involve experts who may have questions. The applicant is obliged to provide at the request of Rospatent the missing descriptions, photographs of the finished product. At the third stage, direct registration takes place, a certificate is issued. As soon as the document is ready, the applicant is allowed the legal use of the industrial design.
Validity
Duration of patent ownership differs for trademarks, utility models, inventions. The minimum term is 10 years, then you must again apply for, renew the patent. If this is not done in a timely manner, the effect of a patent on an industrial design is suspended and it becomes public.
International registration
Before submitting an official application for the registration procedure of a new production product, you should be aware that there are several features of this procedure. So, you can go through such registration in Rospatent on your own, that is, on your own. In this case, you (with a positive outcome of this event) will become the owner of a special official document, according to which you will be recognized as the sole copyright holder for this trademark. But there is one small "but." Such a certificate will give legal guarantees of the inviolability of your intellectual property (industrial design) only in the country in which you performed the official registration procedure.
There is a second option for registering your trademark. You can go through the international registration of an industrial design. There are no specific features in the algorithm for passing the international registration of a trademark.
As with the registration of an object for use within the Russian Federation, upon receipt of the international Certificate of Intellectual Property, you will have to write an application by providing a complete package of the necessary documents.
Among such documents, first of all, attention should be paid to the appearance of the industrial facility, its detailed verbal description, as well as compliance with the laws of those countries in whose territory you plan to produce it.
Useful Information
The procedure for registration of an industrial design is not obligatory; it is the personal will of the entrepreneur or company who decided to find their "I" in the world of economics and business.
The cost of registering for use within your own country has one price. The registration procedure under the international system will cost slightly higher, but you can also use a registered industrial design on the territory of several countries that are included in your document giving you the right to own intellectual property, that is, the right to own and use a trademark. International registration is much more difficult. After all, that industrial design that was invented in one country may well already be registered on the territory of some other state.
Things to remember
Buyers dream of selling quality products to them. They willingly buy cars, computers that have a brand name. That is why the registration of trademarks should not be neglected. A promoted brand can be profitably sold, leased, and used to promote its products. All large companies that care about their business reputation, are engaged in registration of the logo, do not spare either time or material resources.
Legal Conditions
An industrial design receives legal protection only if by its essential characteristics it is original and new. Its essential features are considered to be those that determine its aesthetic features, for example, configuration, shape, ornament, color selection, material texture, fabric texture.
A new industrial design is recognized when the sum of the essential features, which are reflected in the images of the appearance of this product, is not presented in the public domain until the date of its recognition.
When determining originality and novelty, all applications submitted earlier by other persons in the Russian Federation for utility models, inventions, service marks and samples are taken into account.
Reasons for denial of registration
Legal protection in the form of an industrial design is not provided in the following situations:
- when misleading the consumer regarding the place of creation, packaging, the product itself;
- in the absence of exceptional features in the sample claimed for registration;
- when using in the name of the samples of generally accepted expressions that are cultural and (or) historical value
Conclusion
Currently, for many companies, firms, as well as for individual entrepreneurs, obtaining exclusive rights to their industrial designs is the only way to protect themselves from competitors.
There is a special register of trademarks, according to which the uniqueness of the claimed model is checked. The full register of all trademarks that are currently officially operating on the territory of the Russian Federation can be found on the official website of the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, as well as trademarks and patents.
It is important to separately mention that any user can get acquainted with this information, that is, access to it is absolutely free.
But there is no search engine, therefore it is difficult to independently, without certain skills, analyze whether the presented database has analogues to your industrial design or not.
To perform a full-fledged search for similarities and identities, the following information resources should be used:
- a database that is registered in our country;
- a database of all applications filed in Russia for the registration procedure;
- a database intended for international trademarks, the effect of which extends to the territory of the Russian Federation.
Thanks to the search system, you can select the desired state and perform a direct check on international samples that are officially registered on its territory.
Currently, over 350,000 trademarks are already registered in Russia, and therefore, unfortunately, the percentage of probability of your sample matching with the one registered earlier, especially in another country, is very high.
A trademark implies a designation that serves to highlight the goods, as well as the services performed. Such signs should be original, bright, memorable, so that with their help it would be possible to distinguish the products of a particular company from numerous analogues.
So, how to properly formulate their actions in order to quickly and efficiently file a patent for their products or services? For starters, it is important to develop a logo that would have no analogues, that is, it was truly unique, had a high degree of security. Otherwise, it will be difficult to count on the effectiveness of registering your intellectual property with Rospatent.
For example, if registration is required by a young musical group, you can select the name of one of the music albums as the name of the group. In addition, it is important to think over some original touches with which you can add uniqueness to the logo.
Among the registration options by which you can obtain a patent, let us single out the paperwork, that is, a personal appeal to Rospatent. This method is good for those companies and individual entrepreneurs who have enough free time, who can conduct correspondence with department experts.