Patent Lawyer, Patent Defense Attorney, Patent Enforcement Lawyer

Unless your patent is defended agressively aginst any and all potential patent rights violations in a timely manner, you lose! The enforcement of your patent rights is a fairly complex process that usually requires services of an experienced patent attorney. Having patented you idea or having obtained a patent for your invention is not enough. You need an experienced and registered patent attorney who will then continue to protect your rights worldwide at every stage -including in examination, opposition and appeal proceedings.

Considering that patents are of national origin, having secured a patent for your innovation in one country does not automatically grant you worldwide protection for your great invention. In order to protect your patent worldwide, you need to apply for a patent for each country wherein you desire such a protection. Doing so used to be a time consuming, and a very costly excercise. Thanks to the international treaties such as the Paris Convention and the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) ratified by many countries around the world, now an an applicant is required to file a single International Patent Application, which is then treated as the effective filing of separate patent applications by the applicant in each PCT member country.

However, patenting your invention is one thing, defending/protecting it from infringement worldwide still continues to be a complex (and a very expensive) challenge.

Even if the inventor has well documented the timeline of her patent search, description, claims, drawings, and filed her patent application in accordance with the USPTO/PCT requirements, it is not uncommon for the new patent owner to be challenged by some large corporations. Many big companies not only have a large portfolio of patents, but also a sizable team of intellectual property enforcement staff on its payroll. Unless you are prepared (in terms of legal cost as well as access to a competent patent defense lawyer), a big corporation may be able to simply outspend you and eventually succeed in getting your patent thrown out. Similarly, if a challenger can prove your patent to be incomplete or incorrect, it might not hold up in the court.

It is very important, therefore, to make patent defense an integral part of your overall game plan. Considering these possibilities, you should seriously consider hiring an experienced patent lawyer to represent you should your patent be challenged. Be aware, however, that the cost of defending a patent often runs into a few tens of thousands of dollars, if not into several hundred thousand dollars.

We are working on further augmenting this document with additional links to Patent lawyers, and Patent Law related resources. You are, of course, welcome to suggest we add an URL link to your favorite patent lawyer's website! Please Email us to suggest a helpful resource link for this page.

Visit our Patents Law Related Articles and our Patent Law News section for the latest information.