How do I get a patent?

With few exceptions, patent protection must be obtained on a country by country basis. There is no such thing as a world patent, but there are international treaties, notably the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and the European Patent Convention (EPC), which ease the task.

The first step for UK inventors is normally to file a UK patent application at the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO). It can take four years to get a patent through to grant, but the UK operates a "first to file" or "priority date" system. This means that anybody else making a later application for the same invention will not succeed, provided that the first application proceeds to publication. The UK Intellectual Property Office do have an optional "fast track" procedure whereby patents may be granted in less than a year.

Within one year of the date of the first application (the "priority date") it is possible to file further UK or foreign applications relating to the same invention, and these later applications can all be back-dated to the priority date. In this way, it is possible to update an application within the first twelve months if the invention is improved, and also to apply for patents throughout the world.