The granted patent certifies the monopoly (exclusive) right of its owner over the invention. This allows him: to use the invention, to prohibit third parties from using the invention without his consent and the right to dispose the patent. Exclusive rights protect the patent owner from third parties deriving financial benefits from his invention.

The patent is limited in time and territorially, i.e. the maximum term of validity is twenty years, and the exclusive rights are limited to and valid only in the country, in which the document for protection is granted.

Inventors, who decided to protect their inventions must ask themselves “Does it make sense to patent?”. Grant of patent is not cheap undertaking in general. The fees for grant and maintenance of the patent are due in every country in which the patent is granted. In the Republic of Bulgaria the price of patent is not so high but it is important to assess the benefits of owning a Bulgarian patent… (Learn more from our “Business Guide“)

In order to obtain a patent for an invention, it is first necessary to draft and file a patent application for an invention. Any duly filed application is subject to search and examination. During the search, a search for technical solutions close to the invention is performed. While the examination analyzes and evaluates the criteria for patentability.

The patent application for an invention has a worldwide wording that must meet certain criteria. Most importantly, the invention must be described in technical terms. Every future patent owner should know that every patent application goes through a patentability assessment which includes a patent search and analysis of the wording of the description.

A patent search is conducted because a new patent cannot be obtained for something that is already part of the state of the art, i.e. has become publicly known. Having this in mind, every patent applicant should know that he cannot obtain a patent if his invention has been exposed to the public, sold before the date of filing of application or the technical documentation has been published. These analyzes shall be carried out at the earliest two years after the filing of the patent application for an invention. In order to get an idea of the already known solutions in the technique, it is good to perform

preliminary patent search, which provides up-to-date information about the state of the art and plays the “major role” in drafting of patent description. It is recommended that the preliminary search be performed by a person qualified in patent searches. Extensive experience and expert knowledge are required in searching through patent information databases. Possession of such knowledge and skills leads to comprehensive and accurate results and analysis. Any qualitative patent search is a prerequisite for the correct formulation of the claims and the description of the invention.

The description of the application must disclose the invention in such a way that any person skilled in the art must be able to reproduce the technical solution. Therefore, the description should be clear and contain sufficiently complete information about the field of the invention, the prior art,

the technical nature of the invention, description of the figures, exemplary embodiment and usage of the invention. This information becomes the basis on which the patent claims are drafted in the application.

The claims define the scope of the exclusive rights of the owner of the invention. There are strict rules for formulating claims. These are determined by the law of the country in which the patent application is filed. Claims must be clear and precise and what is included in them must be based on the description of the application. It is important to include in the claims

those elements (features) of the invention for which patent protection will be sought, but these features must be described in full in technical terms and expressions, which may be: the elements of the invention themselves, their mutual arrangement and/or the linkages between them.

Figures and drawings may be filed with the patent application for an invention. They are a good addition to give a visual idea of the features of the invention, but are not applicable to all types of inventions. It is important to know that after filing

of the application, the change of the drawings or addition of new ones is made extremely difficult and such are allowed only in special circumstances.

The abstract to the patent application is for the information purposes only regarding the third parties. It does not in any way affect the scope of patent protection. The only requirement for the abstract is to be short and to have a technical focus.

The application form must clearly indicate the applicant’s desire to seek protection of an invention through a patent. In order to clearly indicates this desire and for the convenience of applicants, patent application forms for an invention have a standard form.

There are many and varied approaches for the choice of countries in which to seek patent protection. The best option for each applicant should be based on the nature of the invention and the markets in which the company operates or has the potential to make profits. If such a market is at least 4 countries in the European Union, then the choice of a European patent application would be the most logical option.

There is currently no possibility to obtain an “international patent“

A PCT application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty gives valuable time to inventors to seek investors, sell their idea, or get a preliminary idea of the patentability of their invention before funding multiple applications around the world. If the inventor is only interested in a local market in a certain country, then the option to file a national application (for example only in Bulgaria) would be the best choice. It should be noted that there are big differences in the procedures for obtaining a patent, although

the legislations are largely unified. As can be seen in the process of filing a patent application, the most important is the patent claims, which must be formulated very carefully, as they determine the scope of patent protection. It is also important to know that after the filing of a patent application for an invention, it is not possible to add information that was not originally included in it.

It is therefore highly advisable to seek the assistance of a (registered) patent attorney with extensive and professional knowledge in engineering, who in this sense may not be a lawyer, but must be a registered industrial property representative in the field of patents (patent specialist) and to have passed his exam before the respective official body (Patent Office for the territory of Bulgaria).

Sometimes the self-initiated filing of an application and the incompetent drafting of patent claims can lead to fatal consequences for the patent, even in attempts by subsequently hired patent specialists to prevent this.