posted by on Nov 21
A patent is a set of special rights that are given by the state, to a particular inventor for only a certain time period in place of the public exposure of any type of invention.
You might be very afraid that a patent will cost you a lot. You might be an independent inventor. There are very large companies that are willing to pay a large sum because it will not affect them. But in case you are an individual inventor, it becomes a huge problem.
You may find that you will have to shell out quite a hefty amount for obtaining a patent. In the U.S. in order to file a basic application for patent, the fee is $500. After the patent is given, the inventor needs to pay an issue fee of $700 and also a publication fee of $500. Surcharge needs to be paid if the patent application is more than 100 pages.
However, patent lawyers are very much experts in this work. They can very easily help in filing a patent for a particular invention. But do not think that you can make every idea of yours patented. You also need to know well if your invention is truly valuable in the market. Go for patent only if your idea has the power to make money.
Hiring a good patent lawyer is the simple and perhaps just one step to protect yourself from the patent infringement, in committing it or just to be a party to it. Patent lawyers are very well knowledgeable about the fact that it will be the first attempt towards getting a patent.
Now, a patent licensing gives the owner of the invention the right to stop any other people from using the particular invention and it neither grants the patent owner the right to use the invention. In an exclusive license, the owner gives all the ownership to the licensee for not using the invention. In a non-exclusive license, the owner promises not to sue the licensee for infringement of patent.