A Step-By-Step Guide to Patent Your Mobile App Idea
If you have an exclusive idea for building an application, you might be afraid that someone might steal it from you. Well, luckily, you can implement the intellectual property law to save your idea. Intellectual property law contains patent, copyright law, and trademark that helps in safeguarding your plan. Most application developers and entrepreneurs use patent law and copyright law to keep their ideas safe from others.
“How to patent a mobile application” is one of the most asked questions by entrepreneurs before launching a mobile application. In this post, we are covering the ultimate patent application guide.
What Does Patent Application Mean in Simple Language?
A patent is a kind of intellectual property law that protects your idea from being stolen by others. Patent endows you with an exclusive right to restrict others from selling or using your idea. You can Google “how to sell an app idea” to look at how application ideas are sold online for a lumpsum amount of money. By getting a patent right, you will be able to protect your plan.
It protects your application against illegal or non-consensual usage. It also ensures that one other than you gets the profit earned or credit for developing the application.
Is It Possible To Patent Your Mobile Application Idea?
Yes, it is possible to get a patent right for your mobile application idea. However, you cannot patent the application code as it comes under copyright law. You can get a patent right for the way you produce your application for performing a specific task.
What Are The Eligibility Criteria For An Application To Get A Patent Right?
There are three major points to decide if your idea is eligible for getting a patent right. They are as follows:
- It should be an original invention
- Your design and plan should be unique
- It should provide some value to users and should be useful
The Basic Steps To Follow To Get Patent For Your Mobile Application
If you are searching how to patent a mobile app, you are currently at the right place. Here are some steps that you should follow to get a patent right for your mobile application idea:
Find A Patent Lawyer
To maximize your scope of approval and to get a detailed patent application, you need to consult a patent lawyer. It will be beneficial if you consult a patent lawyer who specializes in software patenting. An experienced lawyer will be able to help you the most in getting the patent right for your idea.
Since getting a patent right is entirely a legal process, you might incorporate litigation. It is a wise decision to hire a lawyer for a patent right for your application idea. We recommend you research well before settling with an attorney for your application.
Discussing Your Mobile Application Invention
Coming up with an app idea is not the end, there are a ton of other things that need to be taken care of. You need to work on various projects to bring your idea into reality. Only when you are ready with an action plan getting a patent right becomes an easy process. At court, you might be asked for proper proofs to show against your application hence, keeping all documents ready is also an important task.
You can also come up with a prototype of your mobile application. It helps lawyers to assess the flowchart and produce better proofs to get the patent right.
Perform A Patent Research
You might have researched well for your application but it is still recommended to employ a patent lawyer for conducting global research for your idea. A lawyer will help you perform deep research. It will save you from any unpredictable breach from any organization.
By spending some extra money you will be sure about your patent having maximum approval scope.
Filing A Provisional Or Non-Provisional Patent Application
There are two types of a patent applications that you can utilize to get a patent right, namely, provisional and non-provisional patent applications.
Under the provisional application, you are allowed to file without any formal patent claim or data disclosure. With this application type, you get the below-mentioned perks:
- You can use the term ‘Patent Pending’ on your application
- It takes 12 months of consideration for creating an MVP
- It is much cheaper compared to the non-provisional application
However, under the non-provisional application, you have the permission to file without any claim made without any reference to the procedure being used. It should be accompanied by clear descriptions and a total number of claims. For this application, you need to provide a detailed written description and claim to contain all legal inventions.
How to select between non-provisional and provisional applications?
- How long can you delay the patent expenses?
- How quickly do you want your patent application to be approved?
Submitting Your Patent Application
It is the final step for receiving the patent right for your application idea. Once you have completed the above-mentioned steps you are ready to submit your patent application.
It is the most tedious step and requires a lot of paperwork. We have listed some essential documents that you will need while submitting your application:
- Declaration
- Specification
- Data disclosure statement
- Entry form
- Claims
- Application sheet
- Cover sheet
- Application Fee Sheet
Conclusion
Now you must know how difficult it is to get the patent right for your application. When you hire a lawyer the process becomes extremely smooth. At Patent Services USA, you will get all help for a patent application. Lawyers at Patent Services USA are extremely experienced and will suggest ways to make the entire process even better.
