PATENTS come under the general heading of intellectual property. Intellectual property is the collective name given to legal rights which protect the fruits of a person’s intellect which can be an invention, a trademark, an artistic work or a design.
One of the earliest patents was granted in the Republic of Florence, Italy, way back in 1492. With the coming of the Industrial Revolution the concept of patents became an important means of encouraging industrial inventions and innovations.
What is a Patent?
Most inventors want to make money from their ideas or at least get them into use. “Can the A-bomb that I invented in my backyard be patented?”, shouts one inventor. “What do I do with my patent for a battery-operated stubble puller?”, cries another.
Patenting has never been an easy business but there is plenty to gain for those who have a first-class idea and who are determinated to make it happen – provided it is original in the first place. What exactly is a patent? Patents are documents conferred by the state upon the inventor which give him the exclusive right to exploit his invention in exchange for providing a full disclosure of his invention.
A patent gives to the owner of the patent the right to prevent others from making, using or selling the invention for as long as the patent remains in force, which in Malaysia is 15 years.The relevant bodies entrusted with the task of processing patent applications and granting patents are the Patents Board and the Patents Registration Office in the Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Affairs.
Applications for a patent must be made at the Patents Registration Office and the patent application will be processed, examinated, approved or rejected on its own merits. If a patent application is successful a certificate of grant is issued.
An unsuccessful patent application does not mean that your idea stinks. It simply means that someone else beat you to it!
Inventors come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Thomas Edison was one of the more prolific inventors coming up with more than a thousand patented inventions before his death in 1831. Then there were the three Terengganu school-boys who invented what is probably the world’s first onion peeler which does the job perfectly minus the tears. Or businessman Anil Vora who specializes in mostly low-tech inventions, who has already come up with 100 inventions, including an easy-to suck baby bottle which prevents babies from burping too much and a non-flip umbrella which doesn’t flip inside out when blown by a gust of wind.
Examples of patented inventions are as varied as the inventors who think about them. They do not have to be as complicated as the jet engine which drives an air-craft. In Fact some of the simplest inventions are sometimes some of the most useful. One example is a button which may be secured to cloth without the necessity of using thread- the brainchild of three local inventors.
There is an unfortunate tendercy in the public mind to associate inventions with gadgets and gimmicks along the lines of the beer-making machine from the movie Young Einstein. However, virtually all machines, apparatus, products and processes across the industrial board are patentable provided that they satisfy three criteria: They must be new; in other words you cannot reinvent the wheel.
They must exhibit an inventive step, which means it would not have been obvious to a skilled man in that particular field.It must be industrially applicable which means there must be a use for it.
There are however certain categories of inventions that are unpatentable. They are scientific theories, mathematical methods, plant or animal varieties, business methods, methods of treating human or animal bodies by surgery or therapy and inventions which are contrary to public order and prejudicial to the interest and security of the nation.
Published in the New Straits Times, Malaysia in 1993 under the coloum Patents Pending
One of the earliest patents was granted in the Republic of Florence, Italy, way back in 1492. With the coming of the Industrial Revolution the concept of patents became an important means of encouraging industrial inventions and innovations.
What is a Patent?
Most inventors want to make money from their ideas or at least get them into use. “Can the A-bomb that I invented in my backyard be patented?”, shouts one inventor. “What do I do with my patent for a battery-operated stubble puller?”, cries another.
Patenting has never been an easy business but there is plenty to gain for those who have a first-class idea and who are determinated to make it happen – provided it is original in the first place. What exactly is a patent? Patents are documents conferred by the state upon the inventor which give him the exclusive right to exploit his invention in exchange for providing a full disclosure of his invention.
A patent gives to the owner of the patent the right to prevent others from making, using or selling the invention for as long as the patent remains in force, which in Malaysia is 15 years.The relevant bodies entrusted with the task of processing patent applications and granting patents are the Patents Board and the Patents Registration Office in the Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Affairs.
Applications for a patent must be made at the Patents Registration Office and the patent application will be processed, examinated, approved or rejected on its own merits. If a patent application is successful a certificate of grant is issued.
An unsuccessful patent application does not mean that your idea stinks. It simply means that someone else beat you to it!
Inventors come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Thomas Edison was one of the more prolific inventors coming up with more than a thousand patented inventions before his death in 1831. Then there were the three Terengganu school-boys who invented what is probably the world’s first onion peeler which does the job perfectly minus the tears. Or businessman Anil Vora who specializes in mostly low-tech inventions, who has already come up with 100 inventions, including an easy-to suck baby bottle which prevents babies from burping too much and a non-flip umbrella which doesn’t flip inside out when blown by a gust of wind.
Examples of patented inventions are as varied as the inventors who think about them. They do not have to be as complicated as the jet engine which drives an air-craft. In Fact some of the simplest inventions are sometimes some of the most useful. One example is a button which may be secured to cloth without the necessity of using thread- the brainchild of three local inventors.
There is an unfortunate tendercy in the public mind to associate inventions with gadgets and gimmicks along the lines of the beer-making machine from the movie Young Einstein. However, virtually all machines, apparatus, products and processes across the industrial board are patentable provided that they satisfy three criteria: They must be new; in other words you cannot reinvent the wheel.
They must exhibit an inventive step, which means it would not have been obvious to a skilled man in that particular field.It must be industrially applicable which means there must be a use for it.
There are however certain categories of inventions that are unpatentable. They are scientific theories, mathematical methods, plant or animal varieties, business methods, methods of treating human or animal bodies by surgery or therapy and inventions which are contrary to public order and prejudicial to the interest and security of the nation.
Published in the New Straits Times, Malaysia in 1993 under the coloum Patents Pending
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