Business Solicitors

Ideas, inventions and concepts?

Specialist patent solicitors have noticed a large increase in the numbers of people starting ‘intellectual property’ cases in the UK and the USA in the last few years. But what is Intellectual Property?

Intellectual property relates to your ideas, inventions and concepts. Things which you think up and therefore you own. Somebody else could just steal your great idea – but thanks to Intellectual Property laws, it’s illegal. Now thanks to the Internet and mass media, it’s easier than ever to lose track of your own ideas and your own thoughts. If you own a business then you need to take extra care of your own intellectual property!

Intellectual property rights

Our expert intellectual property solicitors have experience in helping our clients protect their legal ownership of ideas, inventions and concepts. There is nothing worse than spending a great deal of time and energy on an idea or new invention than to see it being produced by someone who didn’t create it! This is why more and more people seek to take legal action via our network of expert solicitors.

Patents, industrial designs and trade marks

There are three main types of intellectual property. Patents, industrial designs and trade marks. Sometimes these can already exist and someone will want to contest that they don’t belong to the people who claim they own them. At other times, people might want to claim that a patent is not valid as it is too close to an already existing patent that they already own! It’s difficult to understand these different types of ownership.

Different types of ownership

A patent is something the government can offer to you or to your company. The government want to do this because they get to publicly disclose your invention or idea and in return, will confirm your ownership of it for a certain time period. Many things are patented. You sometimes see the phrase ‘patent number x’ or ‘patent pending’ on products in the shops. Gadgets, toys, important scientific discoveries and many other items get patents.

The process of getting a patent for your invention or idea can be a long one. You really need a solicitor if you are not an expert in the intellectual property field. The deal needs to be made clearly and properly in order that your ownership and rights are confirmed as you would like.

Industrial design

Industrial designs are slightly less fundamental than patents but nonetheless bound by law. This is used in cases where you might have enhanced or improved an existing product or idea. Cars, computers, and other consumer goods all benefit from improvements. Authors of these ideas can protect them. But how do you know if your invention is original enough to be a granted the protection of a full patent or simply an industrial design? This is where you need an expert lawyer to represent you.

Trade Marks

Finally, good lawyers will deal with trade marks. These exist purely to associate types of goods with particular companies. If you make a name for yourself selling a special type of thing, then you need that association between you and the thing to be legally protected. It’s a major reason for your income, after all! The vacuum company Hoover is a good example here. Trade marks help Hoover associate the vacuum product with their company – and they are one of the UKs largest companies. Simply fill in the contact form on the page to have one of our friendly, plain talking solicitors contact you for a free conversation