Filing patents Archives

January 12, 2023 Peter Steeghs Patents

Why ask a patent attorney to write and file a patent application?

According to the (European) patent law, “A European patent application may be filed by any natural or legal person, or anybody equivalent to a legal person by virtue of the law governing it. [Art. 58 EPC]”. What this ultimately means is that any person is allowed to draft and file their own patent application for their valuable idea or innovative product. However, before grabbing pen and paper to draft your own patent application, there seems to be only one ‘pro’ we can identify with this approach yet several ‘cons’

September 27, 2022 Roland Duchêne Patents

When can it be useful to keep my invention secret?

Filing Patents is often an important aspect for implementing an intellectual property strategy for innovative companies. Patents are however not the only way to protect an invention. In fact, in some cases, filing a patent application is not recommended.

Indeed, a patent application is usually published 18 months after filing (or the priority date), which means that all the technical details and know-how described in it will become publicly available. This simple fact may have important ramifications for your business and will influence the way you protect your innovation.

It also raises important questions, like: Do you really want to give access to your competitors to the technical data and know-how of your inventions or do you want to keep all this information secret? Does it make sense to systematically file a patent for every invention?

August 11, 2022 Stéphane Korvers Patents

How to avoid the language barrier when filing a patent application in Belgium?

Belgium has a complex institutional system in which the use of official languages is sometimes at the heart of public debate. The laws on the use of languages in administrative matters of July 18, 1966, still play an important role in our lives. But what are the legal consequences of these laws for your Belgian patent application?