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Filing a UK Patent Application at the Intellectual Property Office in Newport, South Wales, provides you with the opportunity to obtain patent protection in any of the countries of the World that are Party to Intellectual Property Rights, and Rules (World Intellectual Property Organisation - WIPO) provided that you comply with the rules governing the processing of Patent Applications. Chief of these is that you must file a set of Claims before twelve months have elapsed, measured from the date of filing of your first Patent Application, and the Claims must be backed up by the Description.

You need to prepare a description of your invention, providing as much detail as possible.

You may be offered the opportunity to have a search done on your invention by an innovation management organisation, but it is important to realise that a patent search carried out before you get a filing date for your patent application (known as the Priority Date) is only useful for telling you that your patent is in conflict with "found prior art". This is because the Examiner who examines your patent application in the searching phase of patent processing, will only be able to examine intellectual property that might be in conflict with your patent application, after all patents that were filed up to the date of your Priority Date have been published. This thus means that you will have to wait until 18 months have elapsed measured from your Priority Date, in order to obtain a meaningful examination result. In other words, you will have to wait until your patent application reaches the publication stage of the patenting process to obtain reaql value from a patent search.

SOME PUBLISHED AND GRANTED PATENTS These are just a few of the many hundreds of Patents that Patently Creative has worked on as part of our Patenting Service for Inventors. NOTE NOTE The B after a Patent Number indicates that the Patent has been Granted. Please Note that the (B) version of the Patent may have some diagrams missing in comparison with the (A) version. If you wish to view enlarged diagrams (i.e. Mosaics) on the IPO or Espacenet website, select pages just after the Abstract, under "Original Document". ​ You can view any of these patents by visiting the IPO at ipo.gov.uk, and searching for Patents. Choose ESPACENET from the list of options.

PATENTING AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT COSTS Our Patenting and Product Development Costs are very competitive, and embrace a wide range of facilities for helping you with you Invention. LABOUR These will vary depending on the nature of your invention and how you wish us to work for you. APPRAISALS These can be provided over the telephone, by email, or in written form. Initially, the telephone is best, because there will be instant feedback between us. ​ We will discuss inventing per se, and answer any questions you have. At this stage, we only wish to know where your invention "lies ", and not what it is . After this stage, you can provide exact details, but only after we have provided you with a signed Non-Disclosure Agreement; often referred to as a Confidentiality Undertaking. THE PREPARATION AND FILING OF A FIRST PATENT APPLICATION ​ This depends on how much work is involved, and involves preparing a patent specification, which comprises a Description and Diagrams. The patent specification will eventually be accompanied by a set of Claims and an Abstract . We will discuss this with you, and consider you needs. THE DESCRIPTION The Description has to be written in sufficient detail that there is no ambiguity concerning what you are attempting to describe about your invention. It is a legal document and whilst it may require modification during the twelve months that we have, to "get it into shape" you are advised to include as much detail in what you send to us because you cannot add to it after the filing, unless improvement applications are filed after the first filed patent application during those twelve months. ​ Such improvement patent applications can be filed as product design and development progresses over time, and each of these filings will be available for establishing a time-stamp for your intellectual property. ​ As you will see from other parts of the website, the Description does not have to include a set of Claims initially, but they will need submitting before twelve months have elapsed measured from the date of first filing, so the cost quoted can include the work for preparing them. The time for submitting them really depends on how the invention is progressing and the Claims need to be written very carefully. ​ When we have decided on the best time for getting a Substantive Examination carried out by the Intellectual Property Office (and please note that the earlier this is requested, the earlier we will receive some feedback concerning whether or not you will be likely to get the patent granted} we can quote for making a Request for a Substantive Examination. There is so much to say regarding the matter of protecting an invention, that we cannot do justice to it here, but we will be happy to discuss matters further when we communicate with you. THE PATENT DIAGRAMS ​ The cost depends on how much work is involved, and how many there are. It is often said that "a picture says a thousand words", and that is very true, but the words need to be put into the Description! Our technique is to prepare the Diagrams, and then describe them in the patent specification to be filed. THE CLAIMS The Claims comprise a series of numbered paragraphs which describe what it is that you are claiming to be new and novel about your invention, and they must be written very carefully. OFFICIAL FEES AT THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE These involve costs for Filing; making a Request for a Preliminary Examination, and making a Request for a Substantive Examination. ​ Filing can be Online, or by Post. Filing Online is quite straightforward, and is cheaper; it also saves the cost of postage and is immediate. Postage would require sending your confidential material to the Intellectual Property Office by protected post; and we would recommend using Royal Mail Special Delivery since the package is checked at all points on its way to the Intellectual Property Office, whilst Recorded Delivery is only checked at its destination. We will use Royal Mail Special Delivery for any posted communication with you, and advise you to do the same when you communicate with us by post. Incidentally, I do not see this mentioned on other websites which cater for Inventors inventions. FILING and other FEES ONLINE Note - there is no VAT on Patent Costs, and the search, substantive examination, and application fees are reduced when filing online ​ Form 1 When making a r equest for grant of a patent, using Form 1, there is no fee immediately. However, if the filing fee is paid at the time of filing the patent application; it is £60. ​ If paid after the first patent application is submitted; it is £75. ​ Form 1 and Form 9A Online ​ If paid when Form 1 is submitted with the patent application, together with Form 9A and a set of Claims; the filing fee is £60, and the fee for making the Request for a Search of the UK patent application Online, based upon the submitted Claims, is £150 for a total of 25 Claims, plus £20 for each Claim that exceeds 25. It is therefore important to keep the number of Claims at no more than 25, in order to keep the cost for submitting Form 9A as low as possible. ​ Request for a Substantive Examination ​ £100 plus £10 for each page of the Description over 35. So you can se that it is advisable to have the patent description written with brevity, but without missing out essential detail.

PRESENTATION FACILITIES We can provide you with technical illustrations of your Idea or Invention through use of our Computer Aided Design (CAD) and other software. ​ These can be used for presentation of your Intellectual Property to potential third party backers, but only under strict conditions of confidentiality, and only after a first patent application has been filed at the Intellectual Property Office. ​ The illustrations can also be used, in modified form, for inclusion in a patent application describing your idea or invention, and CAD is very useful during the development of an idea or invention.