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Patenting your software can help protect your intellectual property and allow your business to thrive. But many business owners don’t understand the fundamentals of how software patents work.
How exactly are you supposed to patent a piece of software and why is this so important in the first place?
Solidifying and Protecting Your Intellectual Property
A patent is a way of protecting the idea behind your software. You already have some degree of intellectual property protection by default; however, for certain types of ideas, it’s much more powerful to have patent protection. Patents are designed to protect certain types of inventions, devices, methods, substances, and processes. Accordingly, they are a great fit for software.
Once you have a patent in place, your software will be protected from infringement. The patent gives the creator exclusive commercial rights; in other words, no one else can use this idea in their own business. You’ll also have the right to license others to manufacture, produce, or use the patented material.
As you might imagine, software patents are a bit complex. The process is somewhat straightforward, but can be hard to understand, and you’ll need to make sure your patent application is prepared and submitted correctly.
Throughout this process, you’ll want to work with an intellectual property lawyer, who can help you understand the bounds of intellectual property law, explore your software for patenting, and ultimately help you prepare a patent application. You can also work with a software patent expert. Software patent experts can help identify promising patent opportunities, prepare patent paperwork, and even identify possible instances of infringement.
The Scope of a Software Patent
A software utility patent lasts for 20 years. This stretch of time is designed to give the original creator or inventor plenty of time to develop and make money from their idea, while also allowing the idea to go public at a certain point.
Since this is a form of idea protection, only certain types of ideas qualify. To be eligible for a patent, your software or process must be:
- New. There needs to be something about your software that is new or novel. You can’t simply reassemble various components of other pieces of software and present it as something new.
- Useful. Your patent also needs to be for something useful. It’s conceivable to come up with a truly unique piece of software that doesn’t really help or serve anyone. Hopefully, your software is useful to a wide audience.
- Non-obvious. Patent applications also require ideas that are non-obvious. Essentially, this means you can’t patent something that everyone is familiar with or that everyone would be able to think of.
- Eligible (otherwise). There are some other eligibility requirements you’ll need to keep in mind when filling out your application. For example, remember that only some types of ideas are patentable.
Preparing to Patent Your Software
As you prepare to patent your software, these are some of the most important steps to follow:
- Outline your software details. In the patent application process, you’ll be tasked with concisely describing your software and presenting what makes it unique. Accordingly, you should take some time before the application to outline the scope of your software and fully detail all the respective elements. If you know how your software works, inside and out, you’ll be in a much better position to fill out your patent application effectively. If your software is big or complex, a software patent expert can help you comb through all the details and highlight the pieces that are most important.
- Identify key points of novelty. Next, identify key points of novelty in your software. What are some features that your software has that other pieces of software don’t? What is the unique idea that governs this piece of software, and why is it not obvious? If you’re not sure, consider examining software produced and maintained by your top competitors. Of course, if your idea is truly unique, you probably won’t have any “real” competitors.
- Thoroughly search for prior art. Patent applications require you to thoroughly search for prior art that may have used your idea in some form in the past. This can be a tricky exercise in the world of software, since there are certain fundamental elements and processes that can be common across different pieces of software. If you want to be successful in being awarded a patent, you need to verify that your idea is truly unique.
Software patents are vitally important – and they keep getting more important with time. In fact, nearly two-thirds of all new patents are somehow related to software. If you want to protect the intellectual property at the foundation of your business, it is a good idea to work with a team of patent experts to get the process started.