Inventors’ Zone

Put simply, a patent protects how your invention works, a trade mark protects a brand name, slogan or logo, and a design protects the appearance of a product. As such, many of our clients use a combination of patents, trade marks and designs to protect their inventions.

At Schlich, we are experienced in advising our clients of the best strategies to protect their inventions, taking into account the associated costs. We offer a 30 minute initial consultation free of charge, during which we are more than happy to discuss your business’s specific IP needs.

To organise a free initial meeting, or ask a more specific question, please contact us at info@schlich.co.uk.

Obtaining a granted patent can take anything from a few years up to ten years, and in very rare cases even longer. However, in the majority of cases, obtaining a granted UK or European patent takes around five years.

The length of time it takes to obtain a granted patent depends on a number of things, such as the route taken to obtain protection – for example, you can file a patent application ‘direct’ in the country / countries you are seeking protection, or alternatively it is possible to file an international patent application and decide the countries at a later date. There are many advantages to filing an international patent application, however this route does generally take longer than filing ‘direct’.

The countries in which you are seeking protection will also have a significant impact on the length of time it takes to obtain patent protection, since some patent offices are significantly more efficient than others.

For further advice, please get in touch at info@schlich.co.uk.

The cost of filing a new patent application depends on a number of factors such as the complexity of your invention, in which countries you are interested in protecting your invention, and the amount of detail / assistance you are able to provide during the initial drafting stage.

At Schlich, we always try to be upfront about costs and are happy to provide long term cost estimates on request as we understand that this is an important consideration for many businesses.

Therefore, for further information on the cost of filing a new patent application, as well as the longer term costs of obtaining a granted patent application, please get in contact at info@schlich.co.uk.

As for patent protection, the cost of filing and obtaining trade mark and registered design protection is highly variable depending on, among other things, the jurisdictions in which you are seeking protection.

Therefore, please get in touch at info@schlich.co.uk for a detailed cost estimate.

Yes! If you are looking to obtain patent protection, then it is vital your invention remains secret until a patent application is filed. In the vast majority of countries, disclosing your invention prior to filing a patent application destroys the ‘novelty’ of the invention and therefore prevents patent protection being obtained. Some countries offer limited ‘grace periods’ for filing a patent application following disclosure of an invention – however, we never recommend relying on a grace period if this can be avoided.

Secrecy is less essential for trade mark applications and registered design applications; however, we still recommend filing as soon as possible (ideally before disclosing the trade mark / design) to prevent third party rights limiting your options. In the case of designs, a registered design application must be filed within 12 months from first disclosure of the design, therefore publishing your design more than a year before filing a registered design application would still prevent design protection from being obtained.

Please contact us at info@schlich.co.uk for more details.

Patent protection lasts 20 years from the date of filing the patent application, however in order to retain patent protection for the full 20 year term, renewal fees will need to be paid. The frequency with which renewal fees will need to be paid depends on the country of patent protection, however in most cases patent renewal fees are annual.

In most countries, trade mark protection can last indefinitely, however similarly to patents renewal fees must be paid in order to maintain trade mark protection. In the UK and EU, these trade mark renewal fees are due every 10 years.

The duration of design protection is more variable than trade mark or patent protection, however UK and EU registered design protection lasts for 25 years, subject to the payment of renewal fees every 5 years.

For more details, please get in touch at info@schlich.co.uk.