Patent
In many countries there are special institutions where an inventor can apply for patent for his product, and thereby protect it from competitors.
Swedish patent and registration office
The authority which grants patents in Sweden is the Swedish patent and registration office, PRV. In order for an invention to be patentable, it has to be new, be used industrially, and also show novelty and inventiveness. The purpose of patents is to protect the inventor’s right against competitors. Without patents, the latter could start production and sales for an invention they did not have any research and development costs for. The sole right for an invention is limited for a maximum of 20 years.
Violation of protection by a patent
A person who violates protection by a patent is guilty of patent infringement, and can be brought to court and sued. To guard an invention against patent infringement can be a problem for the individual inventor who does not have a financially strong corporation to back him up. In general you also need resources to prosecute patent infringement. To bring the matter to court can also be very costly.
The reach of protection by a patent
One further complication is that patents granted in Sweden are only valid here. If you want to exploit the product also abroad, it has to be patented in the country/-ies concerned. More and more countries are joining international patent organizations, where Sweden is also a member, and for this reason patents granted in Sweden will also be valid in the international organizations.
International agreements
In 1978 two international conventions came into force: The Patent Cooperation Treaty, PCT and the European Patent Convention, EPC. Sweden has joined both these conventions. There are no world patents, but through PCT applications are concentrated to a limited number of agencies, e.g. PRV. The applicant therefore only needs to submit one application A PCT application can be followed up by an application at EPO, European Patent Office, which grants patents according to EPC. This gives a special advantage because there are about 20 European countries which have joined this convention.
Databases
There is the possibility to search both national and international databases for patented products and PRV has a good link collection for this purpose, e.g. for Espacenet which offers the possibility to search among 30 million national and international patents. There is also a link to USPTO with American patents since 1790.
Kent Pettersson
2005-06-22
