How to Patent Your Idea in the UK: The Complete Guide

If you've spent time working on your idea, and want to take the next step — patenting it — you're likely wondering how to patent an idea in the UK. It's not a simple task, but it doesn't have to be hard either. There's lots of information out there about patents that can confuse and overwhelm you. We'll steer you through the process of filing for a patent step-by-step so that before long you'll have your own personal intellectual property protection!

How to patent an idea in the UK

How to patent an idea in the UK If you have an idea for a product or invention, it’s important that you protect it before someone else patents it first. It’s a common misconception that an idea has to be fully developed for it to be patentable, but this isn’t the case.
Patents can be granted for five years from the date of registration. After a patent is granted, anyone may use, copy and sell the invention for 20 years from the date of issue, but it can be extended twice if the patent is thought to cover new and useful concepts. The usual fee for filing a patent in the UK is £50 ($67 US) for small claims, £125 ($156 US) for large claims, and £150 ($197 US) for applications covering whole products or processes. There are disadvantages to filing a patent and ultimately having it granted, however. In common with US patents, there are many rules and requirements that a properly filed patent must meet.
A patent allows a company to own the patent and prevent other companies from making, using, selling, or importing the invention. Patent rights aren’t like owning copyright — which is transferrable — a patent is fixed for a set period of time, usually a few years. The duration is dependent on a wide range of factors, but generally, patents have a duration of 12 years after filing. If you want to protect your invention with a patent, it’s important to understand the rules and requirements properly.
To successfully patent your invention with the first three steps described above in order to protect your idea, you will need to file a patent application. This requires the applicant to provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that their invention is new and first-ever. Failing to meet these requirements could result in the UK granting the patent to another company, infringing your invention without your consent.

Patents and trademarks: what's the difference?

A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, or design, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others. A service mark is the same as a trademark, except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a government to an inventor. Essentially, it helps protect your invention from being copied and protects you even if other people later try and infringe on your patent.
Patents are a specific type of trademark, getting in the way of other methods of protecting your invention. My wife and I came up with a brilliant idea for a book back design for a children’s book and submitted a patent application in 2008. The application said:
The present invention relates to a structure for a book cover printed on a durable surface and comprises a laminated paper substrate and an inclined paper upright comprising a resilient sheet of paper laminated to the substrate, an abstract artwork in the form of curved lines on one side of the laminated paper and edge decoration, and a section forming part of the abstract artwork on the opposite side of the laminated paper, wherein the inclined paper is disposed of in a first direction towards the underside of the laminated paper when the book cover is folded closed and disposed of in a second direction towards the underside of the laminated paper when the book cover is rotated towards the first direction of the inclined paper, and a clip assembly.
Basically, we wanted a cover that would fold over in different directions to let the kids choose which direction the art would be on. The patent didn’t say anything about the image being abstract or having curved lines! Robert Goodwill, then-head of intellectual property at the British patent office, heard about our application in 2008 and went to visit my wife and me. He asked us how the book had been received and what our goals were.
The patents are a form of intellectual property lifeline for inventors.

Consider your idea's commercial potential

When considering your idea's commercial potential, don’t get stuck in the trap of thinking that you’re the only one with a great idea. There are plenty of great ideas out there, but it’s how you take that idea and bring it to life that makes it a success.
So, let’s take a look at what you need to file a patent — in detail.
In order to qualify for a patent, you must have made an original and substantial contribution to the invention. Simply inventing an idea without having created any tangible or limited tangible benefit does not qualify you for a patent.
As per the Intellectual Property Office:
Patents enable us to protect new scientific discoveries and inventions from illegal copying or misuse, but they protect a broad range of inventions including cosmetic or pharmaceutical products, software, services and devices, as well as assets such as designs and mathematical algorithms.
Although it may be difficult to conceptualize what exactly a “substantial contribution” is, we can work our way through the steps to assist you in filing your patent application.
Honestly, the idea is essentially there. You have the intellectual property, but how do you actually make it happen?
Initiating your invention legally is a complicated process with lots of intricacies. Thankfully, there are a few resources at your disposal which provide a lot of knowledge on how to proceed with your patent application.
Firstly, the charity prodigy organization The Browser Fund provides a free online course which will prepare you for the complexities of patenting and grant you the skills required to defend your invention.
Secondly, The Web Principles Lab at the University of Leeds hosts a stream of problems that you can attempt to solve. The problems range from simple to complex. By the end of the stream, you’ll have a better understanding of why technologies like webpages and patents exist, as well as many other user-friendly topics.
Recent exam results show that 87% of companies don’t submit basic patents.

Decide how you will file for a patent

If you have a great idea for a new product, you might want to protect it with a patent. There are two main ways to file for a patent: 1) filing a provisional patent or 2) applying for a non-provisional patent. Patent certificates protect an idea, helping you enforce your intellectual property. They contain extensive information about the invention, how it works, and who patented it.
For non-provisional patents, you or a company interested in your invention need to file an application.
To protect your invention, you need to get someone else to file for patents on your behalf. The person who files for your patent is called a patent applicant. The first step in the patent process is to send an Offer to Promote to academic institutions, businesses, startups, and other organizations interested in your invention. The Offer to Promote will advise you whether you can apply for a patent by specifying the conditions you need to meet in order to get it, such as:
When you apply for a patent, you send an Application Data File to the organizations you've chosen to file for your patent. This will contain details about your invention such as:
Patents protect an idea. They allow others to benefit from your invention without paying royalty fees. So users could potentially sell the application data or apply for patent themselves.
If you or a company want to protect your patented idea with a patent you need to make sure it can be made portable or re-useable. The essential ingredients for making immovable ideas portable are:
Patents protect both the outer and inner workings of your invention. The outer patent protects the public from using your invention without your permission and the inner patent protects you from others using your invention without your permission.
The outer patents must describe your invention sufficiently clearly to enable others to make, use and sell your invention. It should also describe all the essential features of your invention.

Registering your invention with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO)

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is the government agency in charge of patents, trademarks, and industrial designs. If you’ve invented something, it’s important that you register your invention with the IPO.
As an inventor you can file to join patent classes and to extend your existing patent, but that’s only the first of many steps. Patent applications must be assessed for eligibility and replied to.
The IPO assesses patent applications to ensure they meet certain criteria. The requirements are quite stringent:
If your application is eligible, then a patent grant will be issued as soon as it is assessed. The grant is valid for 14 years unless you re-license it.
Patents can be valuable property. Just owning it doesn’t mean anything. You can sell patents in the same way as copyright.
As an inventor, you should keep your invention or design patentable for 30 years after its creation. So that means at least 50 years after it was first used. This is a UK law — it says that inventions can be protected for more than 30 years from their creation! However, you need to do something to protect your invention later on.
You can apply to extend your patent in three ways:
You don’t necessarily need to identify your use of the invention for 30 years after its creation.
I chartered with a patent attorney making 20% of my invention protected for 40 years after its creation. A lot of patent applications require identifying the inventor. Patent applications can also state that the invention has been used in more than one country. However, identifying the actual inventor is not a requirement for onward protection. Some inventors choose not to identify the inventor and this is completely acceptable!
Another hurdle you could face with patent applications is being unable to find a record of your application.
Google, however, has databases of applications, and you should access this information.