I had a meeting with an inventor the other day. He had made a great invention enhancing the look and feel of web pages. He had been working on it for more than a year, the software code was now fine tuned and he had a very positive feedback from his clients. We discussed his idea and the possible ways of obtaining protection for it.

During the discussions, he told us that he had been selling this new software for a couple of months; he had presented the software, including every detail, to his clients. In the patent world we say that he had made his invention public, he had disclosed his idea to the world. You might ask what impact this could possibly have on the patent process – but the fact is that in most of the world your invention has to be new for you to get a patent – and if you have already published it yourself, it is not regarded as “new” any longer and you will not get a patent!

We were able to help him though, but only in the United States and Canada. These are some of the few countries where you are allowed to publish or show your own invention before you file an application for patent. You just have to make sure that you file a patent application in each of these countries within a year from the date you first showed it to anyone.

In the rest of the world, however, he cannot get any patents for this invention because he came to us too late in the process!

The moral of the story is: Your Patent Agent should be the first to know your grand idea. Call us today! No obligations – the first meeting is offered free of charge.