Protection

Sorting out some form of ptotection for my invention was going to be my biggest challenge yet.

I had been given advice from several companies, some suggesting protection was a must, and others saying it was a waste of money. I decided to do what I had done so far, and go with my gut instinct, that meant looking into protection.

I knew that I could potentially apply for a patent, I could also register the design of my product. Exactly what either of these entailed, I wasn't sure but I knew it would be expensive, I still wanted to pursue it though.

I thought that registering the design would be easier than sorting out a patent, so decided to look at patents first.
I contacted 3 different companies that had patent lawyers working for them. I got costs from each of them for doing a worldwide patent search, how much to draft my patent application, how much to file the patent application, and also what help they would give me along the way.

Surprisingly (or me just being naive!), the costs and services varied a lot. For example, for doing a patent search I was quoted these 3 amounts from the various companies £250, £495 and £900+VAT. The patent search would tell me if my invention already existed, or a similar invention already existed. I was informed of a website called esp@cenet.com which would help me attempt to do my own patent search. I knew that just because I had not found my product online, didn't mean it didn't exist somewhere with a patent.

Drafting and filing a patent for me varied between £1500 and over £4000, so for me this was not going to be cheap! 

I knew that anything to do with the patent was going to be complicated and would require discussions and meetings with a patent lawyer. I decided to choose the company that was closest to where I lived, actually they were just 5 minutes away from me! This meant I could pop in and see them and discuss things face to face, this was my preferred option as I knew I would get confused with emails and even explaining things over the phone. So my choice of patent lawyer was made, I had emailed my lawyer an outline of what the invention was so that he could look at it prior to our first meeting.

As usual I was nervous about how my idea would be received, I had been encouraged to think positively, think like an inventor, refer to myself as an inventor and that would help me succeed. Some days this was quite hard to do,.on some occasions I would wonder what on earth I was doing, little old me, mum of 4, trying to create a product, on other occassions I would think, 'I'm a genius'!

So, my first meeting with my patent lawyer went well. He understood what the product was, understood how it worked and even said he wanted one! I showed him more photos of the prototype and other related photos. He wanted to set my expectations and explained that whilst I could apply for the patent, there was no gurantee it would be granted, however to use his words, 'it's not a dead duck'! So there was a chance it could get granted.

We discussed costs and how they could help me along the way and I felt comfortable with the information I was being given. It was really nice to be able to talk to someone about the invention in detail and I left the meeting feeling positive.

Applying for the patent was my first big financial outlay, and really the only financial risk involved. If the patent was rejected then I potentially had wasted my time and money.  If however it was granted then I would be in a good position.

This idea had been my project for a while now and I still had not hit my brickwall yet. So in my mind I knew I had to continue.