Patent Law

The protection of intellectual property rights is the key to promote an new invitation or development of an new idea.

Patents, in the form of intellectual property right concerned with new inventions, allow inventors to gain a short-term exclusive right over their invention, in a way that no other entity could exploit it commercially.

The world patent organization has to handle a dramatic increase of patent applications. Major patent offices have built up extensive and growing backlogs of patents waiting processing, while applicants face increased waiting times to receive a patent.

Although the world economy is becoming globalized, the international patent system remains separated into national jurisdictions, each of which awards its own patents, according to national legislation. There is no "international patent" and in order to obtain protection in multiple jurisdictions, applicants must obtain a patent for each jurisdiction through applications to each national or regional patent office.

The purpose of this study is to define a patent and its scope. Further on, the authors analyze the impact of patents of technological companies and afterwards they explain the main Patent Organizations and their regulations.

Technological companies base a major part of their success on the development of better products than the competitors and/or on developing new manufacturing processes that could allow them to manufacture in a more cost-effective way.

To achieve this, companies invest money and resources for the development of new products and manufacturing processes, with the aim of receiving a greater return by increasing their market share.

This investment of money and resources is a big effort for the companies. It is therefore reasonable to think that a company wants to protect their new products or processes, i.e. inventions, from its competitors, who could copy them and benefit from them without having invested on their development. Patents offer such protection for the inventions of the companies and Patent Law regulates the Patent system.

In accordance with the WIPO, Patent Law is a legal framework that establishes a patent system which supports and encourages technological innovation and promotes economic development