Patent Pending

When an applicant who has filed for the patent but has not been granted patent i.e. his patent application is under consideration then the term patent pending applies. Patent pending enables an applicant to prevent their invention from being used by others. So they can use the term patent applied for etc to warn others from using their invention for their own purpose.

However, there are also rules which warn those who try to marks any product or procedure as patent pending; different countries adopt different policies s far as patent pending requests are concerned. To patent a product one has to submit an application in the patent office; upon verification the application is either accepted or rejected. In the application the applicant provides detail about his invention and makes claim that he should be given patent of the product or concept which he has invented.

Generally, the application is filed in the patent office which falls under the jurisdiction of the applicant which in majority of the cases is the country in which the applicant is residing. However there are regional forums also like European Patent Office where also the application can be filed.

The applicant goes through the process of patent prosecution wherein he has to interact with the patent office as why he should be granted patent of the respective product. The applicant has to put forth strong argument-he should prove that the invention which he is claiming to be his own is beneficial to the society and if patent is granted to him then this won’t become a stumbling block in the invention of the new product. There is also patent litigation which deals with the legal aspects of the patent.

There are different types of patents such as plant patents, software patents, design patents and utility patents. Patent office also contains different types of application which can be used for different purposes.

There are several cases wherein during the patent period someone tries to use the concept of the patentee for business purpose or for some other purpose. This is termed as patent infringement. Patent infringement means others trying to use a patentee’s technique for making profit or for his personal motive without taking the consent of the patentee. It is illegal and the patentee has all the rights to take legal action against those persons or organization.

Different countries have different laws to deal with the infringement but every country tries to protect the right of the patentee. The patentee may too provide various excuses as to why he did resort to such an illegal procedure. They may try to prove that the patentee has adopted illegal means to obtain patent rights and at the time of filing the application that particular method or technique were already being used by some others.

So it is imperative that the patent application forms should be filled with utmost care. And during the patent pending period too it must be ensured that the others are not trying to use the applicant’s product for their own benefit.