How will a Patent Protect me?

A patent can be used to protect your business in a number of ways:

1. Defensively – it becomes published and is used by examiners to prevent others from patenting what you have developed. Increasingly, businesses are using patents to carve out as big a share of the market as possible and if you do not have your invention published by way of a patent, the examiner is not going to prevent your opposition from covering your developments in any patents that they file.
2. Offensively – patents can be used to prevent your competition from using your innovations and lock them out of your market.
3. Future-proofing your business – a patent is an asset for your business. It becomes part of the value of your business should you wish to sell your business or license your technology. It has recently been estimated that 75% of a business’ value is in Intellectual Property. If you do not protect your developments by way of a patent, you are potentially giving away much of the value of your business.