A patent is a legal right granted by the state for the right to a monopoly on exploiting an invention. The applicant is required to meet the conditions of the Patent Law, 5727-1967, so that his invention will be patentable. Section 3 of the Patent Law states: “Patentable invention – what is it? An invention, whether it’s a product or a process in any technological field, that is new, useful, industrially applicable, and has inventive progress – is a patentable invention.”

The protection period in a patent is twenty years.

The scope of protection is determined in the claims chapter. When preparing the application, a patent attorney drafts claims that define the scope of protection. An examiner on behalf of the patent authority examines the claims and decides which claims he accepts and which not.

 A patent can be submitted in Israel or outside Israel. A patent must be submitted in every country where monopoly rights on the invention are desired. The Patent Authority in Israel is located in Jerusalem.

Who decides if a patent is granted is the examiner who examines the application in each country. In Israel, there are about one hundred patent examiners. The examiners are usually engineers in the field of the invention submitted for patent registration. But sometimes they don’t agree with the examiner’s position, and it’s possible to submit an appeal to the Patent Registrar who judges the application in the Patent Registrar’s tribunal. The Registrar’s decision can also be appealed to the district court, and the district court’s decision can be appealed with permission to the Supreme Court, but few cases reach appeals and courts. Usually, the details are closed with the patent examiner at the patent authority.

 It’s possible to write המצאה or אמצאה. The Patent Law specifically writes אמצאה, but outside the Patent Law many write המצאה.

Provisional is a temporary submission that allows the applicant to submit a patent within a year from the provisional submission date while utilizing the priority right. That is, it’s possible to submit patent applications in countries within a year from the provisional submission date without another applicant capturing the date called the priority date.

First come, first served. Whoever submits the invention first wins the patent.

The Patent Law answers this question in Section 4 of the law: “An invention is considered new if it was not publicly disclosed, either in Israel or outside it, before the application date.”

There’s no need to manufacture a prototype for patent registration. As part of patent registration, there’s a drawings chapter where it’s customary to submit basic drawings illustrating the invention.

It’s not possible to file a patent infringement lawsuit immediately after submitting the patent. The condition to file an infringement lawsuit is only after receiving a patent certificate.

The fee cost for patent registration varies from country to country. For example, in Israel there’s a regular fee and a reduced fee. New patent application fee reduced {40% discount} for those eligible is 1,228 ₪. Who is eligible for a reduced fee? For example, a private person who didn’t request priority in Israel for a previous application he submitted for the same invention in another country, meaning this is the first application he’s submitting for this invention that he’s submitting in Israel. Companies submitting their invention for the first time in Israel without a priority date are also eligible for a reduced fee, provided they submit a small company affidavit that their turnover didn’t exceed 10 million ₪.

Regular non-reduced patent fee in Israel is 2,047 ₪.

In the USA, the fee varies according to the number of claims submitted. There’s a basic fee, and the more claims the application requests, the higher the fee. Additionally, the fee varies according to the applicant’s characteristics. For example, an applicant who is a private person not employing more than 500 people who doesn’t have income in the year prior to patent submission exceeding $180,000 (the current amount should be checked from time to time) who hasn’t submitted more than 4 patents in the USA will pay a much lower fee compared to a company that doesn’t meet these conditions.

The Paris Convention is a convention signed by about 175 countries. The convention allows an applicant to submit a patent application in one of the convention countries, and when patent applications are submitted in countries included in the Paris Convention, the applicant will win the priority date of the first application, provided he submitted additional applications before the 12-month period ends. That is, if someone submits an application in Israel for example, and another person submits the same invention from one of the convention countries after him, if the applicant who submitted in Israel submits his application in that country even after another person submitted, that person who submitted in Israel will still win priority despite submitting the patent application after another applicant from outside Israel. This way it’s possible to defer costs and first submit only in one country and raise investors for later stages for submission in additional countries.

 A worldwide international patent doesn’t exist. An international application exists, but the international application submitted under the PCT convention doesn’t grant patent rights but only allows deferring patent submissions in countries for two and a half years (30 months).

A patent doesn’t protect design. A patent protects function and operation. It’s possible to protect design through a design registration application according to the Designs Law, 5777-2017.

Protection for the invention through a patent in Israel is for a period of 20 years. It’s possible to sue for patent infringement from the day of receiving the patent certificate, meaning after the examiner approves the patent. When submitting the application, there’s protection for the priority date from the application submission date, according to the Paris Convention, meaning it’s possible to submit patent applications in additional countries that are members of the convention within a year and win the priority date. Therefore, it’s possible to suffice in the first stage with submission in one country, for example Israel, and within a year submit an application in additional countries. About 175 countries are members of the Paris Convention.

It’s not possible to contact the patent authority before submitting a patent and ask them about their position on whether a patent will be granted. To receive the authority’s position, you need to submit a patent and pay a fee, and after that a response will be received. The examiner will conduct a search and check if the application meets the Patent Law conditions. If the answer is positive, the applicant will receive a patent certificate granting him a monopoly on his invention.

Contact patent authorities outside Israel. Our office has a network of consulting patent attorneys in dozens of countries who submit patents there for applicants.

The patent will usually be examined by an engineer in the invention field who is an examiner on behalf of the authority. Sometimes the examiner is not from the invention field.

To receive an answer quickly, it’s possible in many cases to submit an expedite request, and then a response is received from the patent authority within about four months from the approval date of the expedite. Without an expedited process, a patent can be received within about two years in fast cases and more than four years in slower cases, depending on the examining team and the invention field.

“On site” is expediting. An expedite request is called “on site.” When an expedite request (“on site”) is submitted, “on site” is written at the top of the first page to emphasize that it’s a faster application than its regular counterparts.

When submitting a patent application, it’s not published initially. The patent authority publishes the patent application details 18 months from the submission date according to Section 16 of the Patent Law. Upon patent application submission, the Israel Patent Authority publishes the inventor’s name and the invention name without the documents describing the submitted invention.

A patent examiner in Israel searches for the invention in Israel and outside Israel. The invention must be new and have inventive progress, not just Israeli publications. Examiners use databases for patent search. There are many databases open to the public, and an applicant can conduct a search himself for free at no cost.

There’s a patent information search database where you can search, or contact the patent authority library and search there, but the patent database is active for searchers also from home via the internet.

PPH is a convention that exists between countries for a fast examination process. In a country signed on the PPH convention with Israel, it’s possible to advance the examination (skip the queue) if it’s a parallel application, and if a patent was granted in one country, it’s possible to request from the second country to examine the patent quickly in light of receiving the patent.

Full name: Patent Prosecution Highway

Within 3 months from answering the notice before examination according to Section 18 of the Patent Law.

A parallel patent application is an application requesting the same priority date. For example, when an applicant submits a patent application in Israel, within 12 months he’s entitled to submit an application in additional countries in about 175 countries according to the Paris Convention and request the priority date. From the moment the applications were submitted as applications requesting priority and connected to each other, they become parallel applications. The examiner in Israel must be informed about parallel applications submitted as part of the notice before examination.

Many inventors submit a patent application to register the product only in most cases because they don’t know or aren’t familiar with the product manufacturing process. It’s important to check when submitting a patent registration application if there’s novelty and inventive progress in the product manufacturing process. In our office, when we perform concept planning and we see there’s an opening to register a product also for the manufacturing process, we suggest deepening the concept planning if possible and already developing the principles of the product manufacturing process. This way we expand the submission scope and maximize the desired protection scope.

Section 3 of the Patent Law states what is a patentable invention, where part of the section states “…an invention, whether it’s a product or a process…” meaning an invention can be a product or process, and it’s possible to request both if the conditions are met. Section 50(a) of the Patent Law states patent application: “If the invention was a process, the patent will also apply to the direct product of the process.”

Therefore, our office integrates a technical team additionally during the patent registration application process. The technical team performs concept planning of the product and also of the process for manufacturing the product if we see there’s a chance in the process to expand the protection scope. After completing the technical team’s work, the drawings and technical explanations pass to the patent attorney who drafts the patent application.

If a patent is received on a process for manufacturing the product, this has a significant advantage, both deterrent and practically in infringement lawsuit proceedings. When a patent owner sues for infringement of a patent registered on a product, the patent owner must prove his claim, the burden of proof is on the plaintiff. But a very unique case in Israel’s legal system is when there’s a patent on a process for manufacturing a product. In this case, the burden of proof is actually on the defendant, something that facilitates the infringement lawsuit.

Section 50(b) of the Patent Law states: “For the purpose of an invention that is a process for manufacturing a product – in an infringement lawsuit, the defendant must prove that the process he used to manufacture an identical product is different from the process protected in the patent;…” This advantage greatly facilitates the patent owner.

The Patent Law further states there: “…for the purpose of this subsection, an identical product created without the patent owner’s consent shall be seen, unless proven otherwise, as a product created by the process protected in the patent, if these two were fulfilled:

(1) The patent owner cannot determine, with reasonable efforts, which process was actually used to manufacture the identical product;

(2) There’s high probability that the identical product was created by the process protected in the patent.”

That is, there’s an important advantage in performing conceptual planning with a technical team and only then moving to the patent application drafting stage, in order to add technical information about the process for manufacturing the product.

In the patent registration application process and after receiving a patent certificate, the applicant writes during submission who the invention owner is. That is, when someone submits a patent application, he requests who is the invention owner in the application. Ownership presumption in the invention is written in Section 76 of the Patent Law: “Whoever submitted a patent application is seen as the invention owner, as long as the opposite isn’t proven.”

It’s possible to submit a patent on more than one person. In a patent application, an inventor and owners must be stated. An inventor isn’t necessarily an owner of the patent application. A person can be registered as an inventor in the application but ownership belongs to another person or entity, for example in the name of his employer. Sometimes an invention has one inventor and one owner, sometimes there are many inventors and owners. Joint ownership in Section 77 of the Patent Law states: “(a) An invention or patent can be jointly owned by several people.”

Section 77(b) continues and the law writes: “(b) If an invention or patent had several owners, they shall be seen, for the purpose of their rights among themselves, as owners of equal parts, unless a different division was determined in a written agreement between them or by force of law.” That is, it’s important if the ownership between more than one applicant is different and not divided in equal parts, an agreement should be made between the invention owners to prevent misunderstandings later.

Sometimes inventors think that after they submitted a patent registration application, it’s immediately possible to sue for infringement. It’s not possible immediately after patent submission to sue for patent infringement. There’s a need to distinguish between a patent in registration that hasn’t been examined yet versus a registered patent, and also the time element should be addressed from the application publication date.

The Patent Law states in Section 179 the time for submitting an infringement lawsuit: “An infringement lawsuit cannot be submitted except after the patent is granted; however, once an infringement lawsuit was submitted, the court is entitled –

(1) To grant compensation for exploitation of an invention done after the publication day according to Section 16a and before the publication day according to Section 26; such compensation will be in the amount of reasonable royalties that the infringer would have been obligated to pay if he was granted a license to exploit the invention in the scope in which the exploitation was done as mentioned;…”

That is, full compensation can be received after a patent is granted, but there’s a possibility subject to the law to receive certain compensation also from the application publication day even before it was granted. The patent application is published 18 months from the patent application submission date.

The patent registrar is appointed by the Minister of Justice and he heads the authority. Most applications don’t reach the patent registrar at all, but after submitting a patent application, a patent examiner is appointed who is usually an engineer in the invention field but not always. The patent examiner will examine the application. In certain cases, if the examiner doesn’t grant a patent, it’s possible to submit a request for a hearing with the patent registrar who will decide between the examiner’s decision and the applicant’s demand.

The patent registrar gives judicial decisions in various fields including matters of designs and trademarks. The registrar will be a person qualified to be a district court judge, but it’s also possible to appeal the patent registrar’s decision. The appeal is by right to the district court.

Additionally, the Minister of Justice may appoint a deputy registrar. The deputy registrar will also be a person qualified to be a district court judge. In practice, the deputy registrar may fulfill the registrar’s functions.

When saying claims in a patent, it’s not about lawsuits for patent infringement as some inventors mistakenly think. Claims are a chapter within the patent application. In a patent application, there are 5 chapters. For example, usually in patent applications there are drawings, but the drawings don’t define the protection scope but are intended for illustration. The patent’s protection scope is determined in the claims, which are text defining the patent’s strength and protection.

Section 13a of the Patent Law states: “The specification shall end with a claim or claims defining the invention, provided that each such claim shall reasonably derive from what is described in the specification.” That is, a claim must have support in the text in the invention description, meaning in the chapters preceding the claims chapter.

Drafting the claims is critical, and it’s important that a patent attorney drafts them as broadly as possible, but if the claim is too broad, the patent examiner won’t approve the claim. Greedy claim requests should be avoided. Section 13b of the Patent Law states regarding claims: “An element from the invention’s elements can be expressed in a claim as a means or as a step for performing a certain action, and there’s no need to detail the structure, material, or actions required for performing that action; a claim expressed as such is seen as if the structure, material, or actions regarding the matter were detailed as described in the specification.”

Therefore, it’s important to consult with a patent attorney for each specific case. Contact us to receive additional information at 03-9711011.

In many cases, at the beginning of the road, the patent is submitted on the inventor or inventors also as owners. Inventor cannot be changed, ownership can be transferred. For example, if an investor enters or a company purchases the invention, it’s possible by force of agreement to transfer ownership in the invention, just like transferring ownership in a house. There’s a process for requesting ownership transfer. An agreement must be attached, and with an additional fee, ownership can be changed.

Section 80 of the Patent Law states: “Each of the partners in a patent is entitled to transfer ownership of his part without the other owners’ consent unless otherwise agreed between the parties and the agreement matter is registered in the registry.”

Sometimes at the beginning or during the process, an inventor tells his friend orally that he’s transferring him rights in the invention or patent. Sometimes they work together on the invention, but this isn’t enough. To transfer rights in an invention or patent, there’s a writing requirement, meaning there’s a need to write what was said. By force of law, it’s possible to transfer.

Section 82 of the Patent Law states: “Rights in an invention and patent are transferable in writing and pass by force of law.”

Patent registration is a process composed of several components. The cost and price of patent registration varies between invention and invention, both due to the invention’s complexity or simplicity and due to fee expenses and changes in the type of process. First, you need to know technical details about the invention. What does it do? Drawings illustrating the invention visually are attached to the application along with explanations about the invention. In our office, an experienced technical team in the product development field prepares this important stage, which is basic concept planning. The concept planning cost varies from invention to invention. For example, drawings for a pin are much lower compared to drawings and explanations for a tank.

After the inventor’s approval of the concept planning, the drafting work of the patent attorney begins, who drafts and edits the patent application. This cost also varies according to complex or simple drafting. The next stage is submission. For patent registration, a submission process is chosen. For example, patent submission in Israel – the fee as of 2020 for a private applicant submitting a first application without a priority date is 1,228 ₪, but the fee cost varies according to the applicant’s characteristics and also if the Israeli application requests priority from an application previously submitted outside Israel according to the Paris Convention. For example, if the applicant demands a priority date, he’ll pay a submission fee of over 2,000 ₪. Also in the USA, the fee depends on the applicant’s characteristics. For example, an applicant who hasn’t submitted more than 4 patents in the USA, who doesn’t employ more than 500 workers, who didn’t have income in the previous year of more than $170,000 (the amount is updated from time to time) will be eligible for a reduced low fee of about 50%.

An additional impact on the patent registration application cost is the invention field. For example, applications in the electricity field, since they’re generally less complex, drafting costs are lower compared to patent registration in biology.

An additional impact on cost is the application length and number of claims. There are countries where the number of claims defining the invention affects the fee cost. For example, in Israel, an application with many claims over 50 has an additional fee. In the USA, an application with more than 20 claims has an additional fee. Therefore, the answer to patent registration cost isn’t a single unambiguous price, and there’s no shelf price, but it’s preferable for the applicant to request a price quote in advance and not work according to work hours. Working according to work hours can sometimes pleasantly surprise, but in most cases can surprise the applicant with amounts he has no control over. In our office, the consulting patent attorneys and technical team give the client the cost in advance, and they plan the drafting and work according to application type after explaining to the client so he knows the fee cost in advance. Call now for additional details and receive a price quote without obligation to see which routes can suit your invention. Call now 03-9711011, we’re waiting for you.

Sometimes inventors approach us with an idea. The idea needs to be turned into an invention. The Patent Law states that a patent can be registered on an invention. Our technical team from the idea stage prepares drawings and explanations in the concept planning process and turns the idea into an invention. In the next stage, the patent attorney drafts the application, meaning edits the patent application.

In our office, the combination between the technical team and patent attorneys allows maximizing the process and expanding and adding information to the patent application. See also for expansion: how to register a patent.

After there’s editing and drawings, the application is submitted to the patent authority, where the application will be examined by a patent examiner on behalf of the patent authority. If the application meets the Patent Law conditions, the examiner will approve the application and a patent certificate will be issued, subject to the Patent Law and Patent Regulations. If you have an idea, contact us. Maybe your idea will become a patent and reality.

 After submitting a patent registration application, it’s possible to turn the patent into reality through a product development process. It’s advisable to develop the product and come to investors and companies already with a model illustrating in reality how the invention expressed in the patent is implemented. Model or prototype manufacturing isn’t always performed. Private inventors in many cases prefer to bring in an investor who will finance the patent development cost to save costs. There’s no need to manufacture a model for patent registration, but certainly a patent that becomes reality is easier to sell and illustrate to investors the invention and technology.

One of the inventors’ and companies’ goals is to make money from the patent. Sometimes there are additional goals, for example academic honor, professional honor, desire to help, saving lives, leaving a mark, and more, but most inventors and applicants aim for profit. Several ways to receive income from patents, for example receiving royalties from patent sales, meaning the company selling for each unit it sells or manufactures transfers payment to the inventor, customarily at least quarterly. Another way is selling the patent, meaning the company pays the inventor for the patent and ownership in the patent passes to the company that purchased the patent.

Sometimes it’s correct to combine sale with receiving royalties. This way the inventor receives payment also after the sale over time. Patent life, meaning patent validity, is for 20 years.

Another way is establishing a company alone or together with an investor and selling the product or process registered in the patent. This way the inventor brings the patent and the investor provides the investment. Sometimes it’s preferable to also choose an investor who has strategic capability, meaning who doesn’t just put in money but also brings connections and marketing and sales capabilities, meaning the inventor receives added value to the investor’s money.

In companies, sometimes there’s a desire to create a patent portfolio, and then company value sometimes rises before stock exchange investors. Company value is measured in many cases according to the intellectual property it holds in its ownership.

Many companies submit patents and use the monopoly the patent grants to the patent owner, and thereby prevent competitors from entering the market, for example preventing imports and competitors, something that greatly facilitates competitiveness.

Many Israeli patents have succeeded worldwide and changed the world. Israeli inventors and developers are at the top of technology. Inventors in Israel think outside the box and surprise the world time after time with technological revolutions, but most patents won’t constitute a technological revolution, but will simply succeed in selling worldwide and bring capital to inventors and patent owners. To have an Israeli patent, first you need to receive a patent.

How do you receive a patent? What’s the difference between an Israeli patent and a patent outside Israel? We’ll briefly address the tip of the iceberg regarding these terms in the following lines.

How do you receive a patent? A patent is received from patent authorities. In Israel, the patent authority is located in Jerusalem. Each country has its own patent office that grants a patent in that country only. Correct, in that country only, meaning an Israeli inventor who wants to sell his invention and his product needs to receive a patent in every country where he wants to protect his rights.

In Israel and other countries, the applicant is required to submit a patent registration application containing description and usually drawings. The application is drafted according to the Patent Law and internal regulations in that country, usually numbering about five chapters, for example the drawings chapter, or the claims chapter defining the patent’s protection scope and desired monopoly on the invention.

After submitting the patent application, the application will be examined in that country where it was submitted by a patent examiner. If the application meets the law’s conditions, a patent will be granted in that country. For example, important criteria that will be checked are whether there’s novelty in the patent application and inventive progress. Only after examination completion, if the examiner approves, then a patent certificate will be granted according to orderly substantive and procedural processes in the Patent Law and regulations.

Upon receiving the certificate, the applicant has an Israeli patent. It’s possible to submit applications outside Israel. There’s no need to immediately submit applications in all countries, but there are conventions where intelligent maneuvering can be done to defer submission dates for additional applications, for example through the Paris Convention and PCT convention. For example, the Paris Convention allows an applicant from the patent application submission day to submit applications in about 175 additional countries, if he submits his application within 12 months from the first application submission day, meaning if a competitor submits an application before the applicant who applied in another country, still the PCT application can defer submission to additional countries by another year and a half, meaning together the conventions defer by two and a half years the expense involved in submitting patents in additional countries.

It must be remembered that not all patents succeed. Even if a patent is received, which is a legal right, the venture must be advanced commercially. Many patents and ventures came from Israel, for example Waze, disk-on-key, drip irrigation, multi-lock, medical and defense products constituting strong export industries, and of course hundreds and thousands of consumer products sold worldwide.

If you have an idea or invention, call us now. We’ll help you from the idea stage 03-9711011.

Registered patents are patents that went through a registration process in Israel at the Patent Authority located in Jerusalem or at patent offices outside Israel, for example at the patent office in the USA or at the patent office in Germany or in other countries. Registered patents grant monopoly rights to the patent owner and prevent others from exploiting the invention in the country where a registered patent was granted.

Correct, a registered patent is in one country. There’s a need to receive a registered patent in every country where protection for the invention is desired. There are other means to protect intellectual property, for example utility model applications, industrial designs, copyrights, trademarks, and others. These are types of legal protections in intellectual property.

When dealing with a patent, it’s possible to submit an application in one country, and according to the Paris Convention, there’s time of 12 months to submit patent applications in additional countries. Before the year ends, it’s possible to submit an application for an additional extension of another year and a half, meaning it’s possible to defer the deadline for submitting patent applications by about two and a half years.

Registered patents are enforceable through court, meaning if the patent owner sees that another infringes his registered patent and exploits the protection scope granted in the patent, he can file a lawsuit for compensation and injunction against the infringer.

Registered patents give inventors the ability to sell their inventions to companies and investors and receive one-time income or royalties or enter as a partner in a company and more in all kinds of different commercial possibilities.

The patent is a tool for the inventor, entrepreneur, and patent owner to keep and protect against competitors. Sometimes company value is derived from the number of patents it has. Patents constitute an important economic asset in the company and product mix.

New patents constitute an engine for industry and economic growth of the collective and individual. New patents can be found in almost all fields. Most patents don’t change world order. It’s enough that there’s small inventive progress, an inventive step that isn’t obvious to a professional in the field can change both commercially and grant a new patent to the invention owner.

New patents in many cases are based on previously known patents. It’s possible to see in many cases in the patent certificate that the patent examiner gives a list of similar patents, and despite existing patents in the field, grants a registered patent to the invention owner. For example, someone submits a patent on a new pen. The examiner will include a pencil in the prior art and say the prior art is a pencil, and the pen has novelty and inventive progress compared to it by defining the new components in the new pen compared to the pencil.

This way, new patents in many cases are based on previous patents. Not every invention is reinventing the wheel, but a small inventive step is enough to receive a patent. It’s possible to see that many companies and inventors receive nice income from new patents, whether it’s investments in companies or royalties or additional commercial means for advancing the new patent.

Our office treats inventors, entrepreneurs, and companies from the idea stage in new patents. We integrate an experienced technical team with consulting patent attorneys, prepare documents for patent submission, and accompany also in the technical aspect in product development and commercial advancement. Contact us for a first introductory meeting at no cost. Call 03-9711011.

Inventors and companies approach us and ask what’s advisable to do first – product development or patent registration? The answers you’ll receive from companies will be different. Probably a company providing product development services will claim it’s advisable to first develop the product, and a company providing patent registration services will claim it’s preferable to first perform patent registration. Our office provides product development services in combination with patent attorneys for patent registration, so it’s possible to choose to do it at the right stage in your venture, and that’s also the answer. It depends on the subject, depends on the technological aspect, depends on the invention’s characteristics, depends on the applicant’s characteristics and goals. In certain cases, it’s a shame about the money for submitting a patent first, and in other cases, it’s a shame about the money in product development first.

The inventor and entrepreneur’s goal question, the technological knowledge and information at the given moment of decision-making will influence the path choice. We integrate in our work a technical team and patent attorneys, and sometimes we treat these issues in parallel. Sometimes it’s possible to submit a provisional temporary application in the first stage, continue with development, and later submit a patent that updates and adds technical details added during the product development process.

An additional variable is who is exposed to the information. An inventor who wants to search for investors and show his invention, sometimes even if he doesn’t have enough technical details, will be forced to submit a patent registration application to bring in investors to finance product development. Sometimes companies first try to develop a product, and only after there’s an initial model will they submit a patent application.

If you’re inventors, entrepreneurs, or from a company, contact us for a first introductory meeting without payment. After signing a confidentiality agreement, it’s possible to consider the different options and list the advantages and disadvantages, risks and opportunities in your case. Contact now at 03-9711011.

Many entrepreneurs seek to raise capital for advancing the invention and venture. Sometimes inventors start fundraising too early and even before they have at least initial protection for the invention. We’ve already encountered inventors who approached a long list of investors and published their invention on the internet to raise capital. This action is forbidden and will even prevent the inventor from receiving a patent.

The Patent Law’s requirement that the invention be new and not published before patent submission. Therefore, if an inventor publishes his invention and searches for investors before submitting a patent application or temporary application, when he wants to submit a patent, he’ll be prevented from doing so. Even if he submits and receives a patent, when he sues for patent infringement, the defendant will search and find that the inventor published the invention before patent submission, and then the defendant can cancel the patent right.

Therefore, as long as a patent hasn’t been submitted, it’s important not to publish the invention. Therefore, many inventors submit a patent before searching and raising capital. If the budget doesn’t allow, it’s possible to submit a temporary application allowing keeping the priority date for 12 months in about 175 countries, and after finding an investor, then it’s possible to submit the patent application if 12 months haven’t passed from the priority application date.

Therefore, it’s important to consult with a patent attorney for each specific case. Contact us to receive additional information at 03-9711011.

Sometimes inventors and entrepreneurs approach us to prepare a business plan. Our office provides business plan preparation services. A business plan is usually intended for investors and venture capital companies. The plan can also help the inventor himself. A business plan for a new invention on which a patent is submitted comes to explain to the investor what are the advantages, opportunities, risks, disadvantages, etc. in the venture requiring investment.

In a business plan, usually the SWOT model is included. SWOT acronym: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats, which is one of the business models explaining and analyzing to the investor how he’s about to profit from his investment, what needs to be invested, and how long it will take for the investor to want to receive return on investment.

Our office prepares animation videos for inventors and companies to illustrate the patent in a sold manner. The animation video’s purpose is sometimes like an advertisement that needs to create a wow effect, meaning to capture the viewer, for example an investor, in a short time and make him understand the invention and the potential inherent in the invention and patent.

In our office, a team of graphic designers and draftsmen prepares an animation video that in combination with a technical team, meaning when an investor sees a video with a technical aspect and understands how the development goal is and how the product can look in the future and what to do with the mass product, he’ll start asking questions. That’s the goal – to create interest. Based on a short video, there won’t be a deal, but maybe potential investors and partners will start asking questions and want additional details and be interested in investment.

Trademark registration at the Patent Authority is a process for registering a name or logo to preserve goodwill. That is, if patents aim to protect an invention, designs aim to protect new design, trademarks aim to preserve a name or logo to prevent exploitation by another person.

To receive a certificate for trademark registration, an application must first be submitted to the Patent Authority’s trademarks department. A fee of about 1,600 ₪ must be paid, plus a patent attorney’s fee for preparing the application. After several months from submission day, a response will be received. Sometimes the response is an examination report that must be answered and explained to the Patent Authority, to the trademark examiner, why the applicant should be granted the right.

The advantage in a trademark over other intellectual property rights is that it’s possible to renew the right every 10 years through a procedural action of fee payment.

Trademark examiners sit at the Patent Authority but don’t deal with patents. It’s a separate department dealing with trademarks. If an examiner refuses to grant a trademark right, it’s possible to submit a request to the Patent Registrar and request to change the decision, and if the Patent Registrar also refuses, it’s possible to submit an appeal to court. But the vast majority of applications don’t reach the registrar and courts, and are usually granted by trademark examiners.

Patent fees are one component of the expense for patent registration. Patent fees vary by country and different types of applicants. It’s possible that for the same application, one applicant will pay one amount and the second applicant will pay another amount, since the fee amount can vary between different applicants.

Fees in different applications in Israel and outside Israel are many. In addition to the application fee, there are many more fees for various actions and applications that can be during the application’s life.

Submission fees are the first fees an application applicant will pay to the Patent Authority or patent offices worldwide.

A provisional temporary application fee, sometimes wrongly called temporary patent since it’s not a patent, is about $150 for an applicant called small entity. It’s possible to attach a micro entity form to the application for applicants who didn’t have more than 4 patent submissions, who don’t employ more than 500 people, and whose income doesn’t exceed the amount set in law. Whoever meets several criteria that should be checked in each specific case with a patent attorney is eligible to pay a reduced fee of about $70. In this case, there’s no big difference, so in temporary applications, the differences aren’t large, but in other American fees, sometimes the differences are large to hundreds of dollars, and attention should be paid to this at submission time.

Regular patent application fee in Israel is about 2,040 ₪, but there’s also a reduced fee, for example a private person whose application for this invention is submitted for the first time in Israel, meaning he didn’t previously submit an application for this invention outside Israel and didn’t request a priority date for the Israeli application. Whoever is eligible in this case for a reduced fee has a patent application fee of about 1,228 ₪. Additionally, companies are also eligible under the same conditions to pay a reduced fee if their business turnover was smaller in the previous year than 10 million ₪. If this condition is indeed met, then a small company affidavit must be submitted to the authority to pay a reduced fee.

Another common fee is an application fee according to the PCT convention. This application is submitted to the Patent Authority in Israel or to patent offices in the USA or Europe, and it’s called an international application. The name is misleading, and some mistakenly think an international application means it requests patents in all world countries, but this isn’t so. The application gives the applicant time to submit applications in target countries signed on the convention within 30 months, meaning two and a half years from the first application submission day to the patent office. We won’t elaborate here on this application in these lines. It’s possible to see an expanded explanation on this subject on the website, but we’ll note that if we submit the application according to the PCT convention through the Israeli Patent Authority PCT department, we’ll pay a fee of about 8,500 ₪, but if we submit the application through the American patent office, we’ll pay even more, and if we submit through the European patent office, the payment will be even higher than the American.

Patent development and prototype manufacturing are fields closely related to each other. Patent development is development of a patent application submitted to the Patent Authority or received. Sometimes before patent submission, it’s advisable to develop the invention to submit a patent application with more technical details that can expand the desired submission scope.

That is, an inventor has an invention and knows how to reach his goal in a certain way, for example measuring distance using a wheel. After concept planning before patent submission, it’s possible for our example that the technical team will suggest additional solutions for distance measurement, for example by optical means such as laser, sound means, and more.

If this data isn’t brought to the patent attorney, the patent attorney won’t mention it, and the submission scope will be poorer compared to what would be if there were more technical possibilities in the application.

In other cases, inventors come to us with an invention that doesn’t have enough to enter and receive a patent according to the Patent Law. Our technical team draws and defines the invention with the inventor and with the patent attorney, so there will be enough technical details to sometimes turn it from an idea into an invention or into an invention with more chance to receive a registered patent.

After submitting the patent application, it’s possible according to several orderly stages to perform patent development, meaning to move from the patent field to the technical field, to first design and manufacture a model, perform design, plan and manufacture tools for mass production and for manufacturing the first prototype, meaning the first in series.

How much is a patent worth and what is its value – many inventors ask, since a patent is a unique thing and not a shelf product. Inventors in many cases don’t know how much their patent is worth and what the patent’s value is. There’s no single unambiguous price for a patent. In most cases, there’s negotiation between the patent owner and an investor, for example. One will claim it’s X and the other will claim it’s X times two.

But it’s possible to assess patent value to have an estimate. Patent value has several characteristics helping to assess its worth. For example, what’s its status – is it a patent application or a patent that finished the registration process and is already a registered patent? Where was the patent submitted and granted? Is there a patent in one country or were patents received in many countries? What’s the added value it provides? What are the advantages, disadvantages, opportunities, and risks according to the SWOT model? What claims were received, meaning what’s the protection scope in the patent? What’s the patent’s potential, meaning what are the estimates and forecast for 5 years ahead? What’s the expected income and profit in coming years? What’s the investment risk? If in development there’s research and no certainty of technological success, or is it about development with high technological feasibility?

In our office, we integrate a technical team, patent attorneys, and a team from the marketing and business management field to prepare a business plan answering these questions, to perform patent value assessment. Call now for an introductory meeting at no cost. Call 03-9711011.

Green patents are patents going through a green track at the patent office and receiving faster examination compared to patents examined in the regular track. For example, patents helping the environmental quality field – the state through the Patent Authority is justified in examining them faster. This incentive will grant the applicant a patent faster, something that will help him implement and advance the patent, and as a result improve or help environmental quality.

To apply for a green patent process, an appropriate application must be submitted to the Patent Authority in addition to the regular application and documents submitted in a patent application, to reason and explain why this specific application meets green application conditions.

If a decision is given that the application falls under a green application, then the applicant will receive examination relatively quickly in time of about 3-4 months.

To help inventors, this application has no fee alongside it, unlike other special applications that mostly have an additional fee. In December 2009, a circular (M.N 76) from the Patent Authority was distributed, describing the criteria for expedited examination of “green” applications.

Patent attorneys in our office submitted green applications that were received within relatively short time. For additional details, contact us for an initial introductory meeting at no cost. Call our office now at 03-9711011.

Patent on application and software – inventors approach us and ask us if it’s possible to receive a patent on application and software? The answer is yes. Patents are granted on applications and software, but this is a more complex field to receive a patent on compared to, for example, a patent for the electricity or mechanics field. In our office, there’s a technical team and patent attorney who drafted many applications for the applications and software field and received many patents in these fields.

Patents in the applications and software field require knowledge in this type of writing. For example, a patent attorney from the chemistry field won’t always know how to edit and submit a patent application in the software field.

Sometimes patents in this field receive an examination report saying the application isn’t in a technological field. The patent attorney needs to explain and show the examiner that the new invention indeed has distinguishing technological character, that the application meets the Patent Law conditions.

For example, many patents in software and applications are granted on a method, meaning the application defines a method and not a product that can be requested, for example, in the mechanics field. Each case needs to be examined on its merits and the invention defined in combination with a technical team and consulting patent attorney.

Contact now for additional details at 03-9711011.

Patent registration by patent attorney is the way most inventors and companies submit patents. The Patent Law permits the inventor himself to submit an application or a patent attorney or lawyer on his behalf. But it’s preferable for the inventor that a patent attorney license holder or lawyer dealing in the patent field draft and edit the application for the inventor. Just as a person goes to court and usually uses a lawyer’s services, so too it’s preferable in the patent submission field. This field requires knowledge and experience.

In our office, we integrate a technical team and patent attorney from the idea stage. The technical team prepares drawings and technical explanations for the invention, and the patent attorney drafts the application, meaning edits the patent application.

In our office, the combination between the technical team and patent attorneys allows maximizing the process and expanding and adding information to the patent application. The patent attorney doesn’t add and doesn’t deal with the technical side, therefore it’s important to integrate a technical component in the application and of course the patent attorney who will edit the patent application. Editing a typical patent application is composed of five chapters. Drawings and technical explanations for the drawings are important parts in the application, and the part that will define the patent’s submission scope is the claims chapter. The claims are those that will define what the protection scope is and what’s included in the patent owner’s monopoly.

For additional details and introductory meeting at no cost, contact us. Call now 03-9711011.

It’s possible to start patent development even before patent submission, but many start patent development after patent submission so that during development there will already be a priority date and to reduce the concern of copying or capturing the invention by another competing applicant.

A confidentiality agreement is an agreement between an inventor and another person or entity stating the conditions for maintaining confidentiality. In our office, we customarily sign a confidentiality agreement for the inventor when he reveals his invention.

The first meeting in our office isn’t associated with payment. The meeting is intended for initial introduction, signing a confidentiality agreement, and giving a price quote to the inventor or company to advance with his invention.

To advance the invention, call us at 03-9711011. If you have additional questions, we’ll be happy to answer. It’s possible to schedule a first introductory meeting at no cost to receive a price quote for advancing the invention.