Patent Information
How do I get a patent?
When a company first applies for a patent they will often find that it is a complicated process that can present a minefield of traps for the unwary. There are a variety of routes to establishing patentability and achieving a granted patent.
The common process to obtaining a granted permit is to ensure your invention meets three main criteria: novelty, inventive step, and utility. A patent search by a registered patent attorney will usually determine if these criteria have been met:
- Novelty asks if your product has been published, used, or sold previously,
- Inventive Step is a subjective test that asks if the product is obvious to a person skilled in the art, and
- Utility is simply being able to show that the product has an industrial use.
Assuming the product or method meets these criteria, a typical patent filing process for a New Zealand company is as follows:
How do I register my design?
Designs protect a novel shape and configuration or pattern and ornamentation applied to an object. While getting a registered design and the design process is simpler than the patent process, it still has its complications.
To obtain a registered design, the shape and configuration or pattern and ornamentation must be novel. A search will usually determine if these criteria have been met.
- Novelty asks if your product has been published, used, or sold previously
- Shape and configuration or pattern and ornamentation need to be primarily aesthetic and not totally function dependent.
Assuming the product or method meets these criteria, the typical design filing process is as follows:
An important step in obtaining strong design protection is ensuring that your filed drawings accurately show the product including perspective views with shading if relevant.
How do I get a trade mark?
Trade mark registrations protect signs that distinguish one trader's goods and/or services from those of another trader. Such signs can include words, logos, colours, shapes, sounds and even smells.
Trade marks must have three key elements to be considered acceptable for registration, namely:
- capable of being represented graphically (usually more of an issue for the more unusual sound or smell marks)
- not confusingly similar to any prior mark, and
- inherently distinctive, i.e. not laudatory or descriptive.
A pre-filing search by a registered patent attorney at CreateIP will include an assessment of these factors.
Once the application for registration has been filed in New Zealand, the examination report, or the Notice of Acceptance, will usually be issued by the Intellectual Property Office within 2-3 weeks. Then, once all the Examiner's concerns have been addressed (if any), the application will be accepted and advertised in the Patent Journal. If noone opposes the application within three months of the publication date, it will proceed to registration.
An important aspect of obtaining strong trade mark registration is to ensure that the relevant goods and/or services have been properly defined, and the different variations of the mark covered.
Do I have copyright?
Copyright protects an original work from being copied. Original works include books, drawings, photos, video footage, music, software, website layouts and even industrial items (NZ only).
Copyright is not formally registered in NZ or elsewhere except the USA (voluntary) so is 'free' to obtain.
Copyright does not prevent another party from independently coming up with the same work.
Enforcing copyright involves showing three key steps:
- That you own the copyright (e.g. through design records, computer back ups etc)
- That the infringing party knew of the original work or had access to it e.g. via the web, via a brochure.
- That the infringing party made a copy of a 'substantial' portion (or all) of the work.
'Substantial' is not defined and instead tends to be a subjective decision.
Copyright only extends to the expression of an idea and not the idea itself.