Patent registration is the process of applying to the Israel Patent Authority, or Patent Authorities in other countries. An inventor can submit an application for a patent on his invention. The patent application text must be written with all the relevant details, accompanied by illustrations. However, inventors often approach patent attorneys with a result they are interested in achieving, without the technical solution to the problem.

For example, an inventor may tell a patent attorney that he wishes to apply to patent an invention that can turn sea water into petroleum, but the patent attorney is likely to tell him that there is no idea to protect since the inventor cannot describe to the patent attorney how his invention will work. It is important to be able to describe the technicalities of the solution, and how it will work., It is therefore usually preferable to integrate a technical staff that can help the inventor find possible creative solutions before the patent attorney starts his work. A solid combination of the inventor, a technical team and patent attorney will improve the potential scope of protection awarded to the invention. The technical team will pass all necessary technical details to the patent attorney, who can then formulate the patent application that will be submitted to the Patent Authority.

After the patent application has been submitted, the Israeli Patent Authority will appoint a Patent Examiner to examine the documents. The Israeli Patent Authority is the institute certified to issue patent certificates for new inventions and confer registered patent status upon them. An important section of Law that deals with registering patents is Section 3 of the Patents Law, there it states:

“What constitutes a patentable invention? (Updated: 5760)

3. An invention, whether a product or a process in any field of technology, which is new and useful, can be used industrially and involves an inventive step, is a patentable invention.” (Emphasis not in the original text)

The underlined sections of this section are the important and fundamental part of the examination process of patent registration. The patent examiner will examine, amongst other things, if these traits exist within the subject of the application that has been submitted to the Patent Authority. If the examiner discovers that the applicant adheres to these conditions of Patents Law, as well as Patent Authority judgments, publications and circulars, he will grant the patent to the applicant.

Once the inventor has received his patent certificate, he owns all rights to the invention, and is therefore entitled to sell his rights. Patent sale is the trade and marketing of intellectual property in the possession of the patent holder. There are multiple ways to sell a patent, the most popular ways being sale of the patent rights for a one-time payment, or for payment of royalties to the inventor in accordance with the extent of sales of the product. A preferred way to best benefit the inventor is a combination of these two ways, i.e. an initial payment in advance, with additional royalties usually lasting the period of the patent (20 years from the date of application).

An inventor who has a new invention must build a strategy that integrates the three areas in order to manipulate and maximize his invention’s unfulfilled potential. He must consider the technical aspect, the patent registration and the business aspect of marketing the patent awarded to the invention. Skillfully combining the technical team, patent attorney and business advisors can help the inventor to a successful patent sale.