Companies invest a substantial amount of time and money in research and development (R&D). Therefore, when they create something new after years of research, it becomes crucial to protect their inventions through intellectual property (IP) rights. This step ensures that the owner companies hold the sole rights to market their innovations and prevent other entities from selling products related to their inventions without permission.

The following article covers how companies can use IP to take their inventions to the market.

Consumer Inventions and Businesses

The viability of consumer inventions is crucial to the survival of most companies. Hence, they must carefully traverse through the different steps in the IP journey of a new invention. Not doing so, can later lead to the failure of their product as well as the downfall of their business.  

How to Take Your Consumer Invention to the Market

In order to successfully get your consumer invention to the market, you must consider the following four steps from an IP perspective:

1. Check Patentability

Conducting patentability searches is the first step to getting your consumer invention to the market. By performing these searches, you can identify whether your invention is unique and patentable. This ensures that you do not fall prey to litigations from competitors who may have similar inventions in the market. There are two different ways in which you can conduct a patentability search: Manual and Automated. With the help of external IP service providers, you can conduct a combination of automated and manual patentability searches. Such a holistic search strategy can provide you with the due diligence needed to get your consumer invention to the market.

2. Compare Prior Art

Once you have conducted the patentability searches, you must compare the identified results with the consumer invention. For example, your invention may be a table fan that is controlled using a smartphone. If there is a prior-art for a similar table fan that is controlled using a remote, you will get a fair idea about the changes needed in your design. This will help in ensuring that your invention does not match with the existing prior-art.

3. Decide Your Market

Before filing a patent, you should know about the jurisdictions where you should apply for patent protection. For doing this, you must conduct an automated landscape search to identify the relevant markets. This includes but is not limited to identifying competitors that have products on similar inventions. Doing this gives you a fair idea about the jurisdictions where you can file a patent.

4. Identify Local Laws

After identifying the scope of patentability, searching the relevant prior arts, and making the necessary modifications to your consumer invention, you can file a patent in the jurisdiction of your interest. While doing so, you must be aware of the local laws regarding patent filing. Firms can take different routes to file patents in international jurisdictions. For example, you can file patents in different countries using the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) route.

Conclusion

While firms can use the four aforementioned steps to take their consumer inventions to the market, it is still advisable to seek professional assistance. This is because external IP service providers or IP attorneys hold extensive multi-domain and multi-jurisdictional knowledge about IP filings and infringements.

If you are looking for such IP-related services, getting expert guidance can be helpful. Sagacious IP offers not just consultation but also end-to-end IP services such as patentability searches and patent landscape analysis.

• Rohit Joshi (Engineering Searching) and The Editorial Team

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