Our Services

Services for Inventors and Companies Employing Inventors

Patent Searches
Patent Drafting and Filing
Patent Prosecution and Grant
Patent Portfolio Management
Contact Us for other services

Services for Patent Agents outside of Canada

Patent Searches

So, you made an invention and want to know whether you can get a patent for it! Say that the invention is represented by the light bulb in the graphic below. Typically, a search will show that a portion of the invention is in the prior art, represented by the gray area partially obscuring the light bulb.

It is the portion of the invention over and above the prior art that you can get patent protection for, provided that certain patentability requirements are satisfied.

Note, that a large unobscured portion of the light bulb does not automatically make you rich. Vice versa, a small unobscured portion of the light bulb may be commercially valuable worth protecting by a patent.

Ottawa Patent Agency Incorporated can provide you with an opinion on what portion of your invention you can get patent protection for. Our opinion will help you make a decision whether or not to go for a patent. Your decision will typically be based on a cost-benefit analysis of the value of the patent for your business.

Patent Drafting and Filing

You have now made the decision to go for a patent. A patent application has to be drafted, typically in a collaborative effort between the inventor and the patent agent. As the old saw goes, the inventor invents the invention and the patent agent invents the patent. Ottawa Patent Agency Incorporated has exceptional inventive skills for a patent agency.

The patent application is then filed at a Patent Office of a target country, typically where the prospective patentee has a business to protect. There is no such thing as a world patent. Although there is indeed something called a PCT filing, which is a filing of an International Patent Application. However, to get a patent in the target country, the International Patent Application has to enter and be granted in the target country. Ottawa Patent Agency Incorporated can help you formulate and follow-through with a filing plan for your target countries.

Patent Prosecution and Grant

Prosecution? No, no, nobody goes to jail! That's just an unnecessarily intimidating term of art for what happens next with the filed patent application until the grant of a patent. The patent application is examined by a patent examiner of the Patent Office, and the first report of the patent examiner almost always rejects the patent application on various grounds.

The patent agent, preferably of the Ottawa Patent Agency Incorporated, then helps the inventor overcome the rejection and get a patent for the unobscured portion of the light bulb to the maximum extent permitted by patent law.

Sometimes, there is nothing left to patent, which typically happens when the patent examiner discovers in his search a piece of prior art that completely obscures the light bulb. This is why we recommend doing a patent search to begin with.

Patent Portfolio Management

Ottawa Patent Agency Incorporated can help you get patents in the US, Canada, and most countries of the world. As your business grows, we can help you build up your patent portfolio in target countries around the world. Click here to see a Letter of Recognition from a global company.

Services for Patent Agents outside of Canada

Ottawa Patent Agency Incorporated offers associate patent agent services for Canadian filings and prosecution. We will reciprocate as our clients file outside of Canada. You may find the following information useful:

Special message for US patent agents: we are licensed not only in Canada, but also in the US. We are thus familiar with US patent law and practice for ease of communications and optimum coordination.

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