Patents: what to do with an idea you think is worth protecting

The short version. An idea on its own cannot be patented. A patent protects a specific technical invention, it is expensive, and it is only worth having if you could afford to enforce it. Most ideas are better served by moving quickly, keeping the crucial part confidential, and relying on copyright and brand. But if yours is one that should be patented, there is a single mistake that ends the conversation permanently — and you can make it this week, by accident, in a pitch.

1. Do not tell anyone. This is the mistake that cannot be undone.

To be patentable in the UK an invention must be new — new against everything made available to the public anywhere in the world before the date you file. That includes things you did. A demo at a meetup, a pitch to investors without an NDA, a crowdfunding page, a conference talk, a paper, a product listing, a video, a forum post explaining how it works: any of these can become prior art against your own application.

The UK and Europe have no general grace period. The United States does allow a limited one, which is why you will find confident advice online saying early disclosure is survivable — it was written for a different country. There are narrow exceptions here (broadly, disclosure obtained in breach of confidence, or display at certain officially recognised international exhibitions, each within six months), but they are exceptions, not a plan.

What to do instead: talk under a signed non-disclosure agreement, or talk about the problem and the outcome without disclosing how it works. Patent attorneys are bound by professional confidentiality, so you can speak freely to one before you file anything.

2. Know what a patent is, and what it is not

A UK patent is a time-limited monopoly — up to twenty years, with renewal fees payable to keep it alive — over a specific invention, defined by the claims. To be granted it must be:

• New — not already available to the public anywhere in the world.
• Inventive — not obvious to someone skilled in that field. This is where most applications actually fail.
• Capable of industrial application — it can be made or used in some kind of industry.
• Not excluded — and the exclusions are broad.

The Patents Act 1977 excludes, "as such", discoveries and scientific theories, mathematical methods, literary and artistic works, schemes or rules for performing a mental act, playing a game or doing business, presentations of information, and programs for a computer. Methods of treating or diagnosing humans or animals are excluded separately.

Those last two catch a great many good ideas. "A better way to run a marketplace" is a business method. "An app that does X" is, on its own, a computer program. The words "as such" are doing real work, though: software producing a technical effect beyond the ordinary running of a computer — controlling a machine, improving how the computer itself works, processing a signal — can be patentable. Precisely where that line falls is genuinely contested, and it is the question to put to a patent attorney rather than to a search engine.

Two things a patent is not. It is not permission to sell your product — somebody else's patent can still block you. And it is not enforcement: nobody polices it on your behalf. A patent is a right to go to court at your own expense.

3. Decide honestly whether it is worth it

The uncomfortable question is not "can I patent this?" but "if a well-funded competitor copies me, will I actually sue them?" Patent litigation in the High Court is very expensive. The Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) exists to make IP disputes more affordable, with caps on recoverable costs and on damages — but note that IPEC's cheapest route, the small claims track, does not hear patent claims, so a patent dispute means the IPEC multi-track or the High Court. The IPO's non-binding opinions service is a comparatively cheap way to get a view on validity or infringement before anyone starts litigating.

A patent tends to earn its cost when:

• the advantage is technical, and visible in a competitor's product — so you could tell you had been infringed;
• the market is big enough that a monopoly is worth more than the bill;
• you need it as an asset, because investors, licensees or an acquirer are pricing it in;
• the invention is genuinely hard to design around.

It tends not to be worth it when your advantage is really execution, brand, data, distribution or speed; when the invention would be obsolete before grant; when you could never detect infringement; or when publishing the method — which is what a patent application does at eighteen months — hands competitors a recipe they did not previously have.

Keeping it secret is a legitimate alternative, not a failure. A trade secret never expires. It also protects you not at all the moment it gets out, and not at all against someone who invents the same thing independently.

4. Do a first-look search before you spend anything

You will not do this as well as a professional searcher, but an hour here regularly saves thousands. Free places to look:

• Espacenet, from the European Patent Office — worldwide coverage, the serious one.
• Google Patents — friendlier full-text search, good for a first sweep.
• The UK Intellectual Property Office search, and Ipsum for the file history of UK cases.

Search the function, not your product name: describe what the thing does, in several different vocabularies, because patent specifications are written in deliberately generic language. And remember prior art is not only patents — a product on sale, a manual, a thesis, a video or a blog post all count. If you find something close, that is a good outcome. You have just saved yourself the cost of finding out later.

5. Understand the timeline — the first year is the useful part

• Day 0 — file. Your filing date becomes your priority date. That is the moment the invention has to be new by, which is why filing before disclosing is the whole game.
• The next twelve months — the priority year. This is the genuinely valuable bit. You can now talk about it, test the market, sell and raise money, while deciding whether it is worth taking abroad. Applications filed in other countries within this window can claim your original date.
• Around eighteen months — publication. Your application is published. From then on anyone can read how it works, whether or not it is ever granted.
• Search and examination are requested separately, each on its own deadline. Examination is where the real argument happens.
• Grant commonly takes several years from filing, though it can be accelerated if you have a reason.
• Renewal fees begin from the fifth year and rise annually. A patent you stop paying for lapses.

There is no such thing as a world patent. The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) gives you one international application that preserves your options across more than 150 states and defers the expensive decisions to roughly thirty months from priority — but you still have to file, argue and pay in each country or region you actually want.

6. What it costs, honestly

There are two separate bills. The official fees payable to the IPO — filing, search, examination — are modest, in the low hundreds of pounds for a UK application, and cheaper if you file online. The professional fees are the real cost: having a patent attorney draft and file a UK application typically runs to several thousand pounds, because drafting the claims well is the work, and going international afterwards moves into tens of thousands.

Fees and thresholds change. Check the current figures on the IPO's own website rather than trusting any article, including this one.

You are entitled to file your own application, and people do. But a badly drafted specification usually cannot be repaired later — you are not permitted to add new matter after filing — so a cheap application that claims the wrong thing is often worse than no application at all, because it has also destroyed the novelty of the thing it failed to claim.

7. The alternatives, which are frequently the better answer

• Copyright — automatic in the UK, no registration, no fee. It protects the expression: your source code, text, drawings, designs, music. It does not protect the underlying idea, and it does not stop somebody writing their own code that does the same job. For software it generally runs for the author's life plus seventy years.
• Registered designs and unregistered design right — the appearance and shape of a product. Registration is inexpensive next to a patent.
• Trade marks — your name and logo, registered against the classes of goods and services you actually sell. Often the most valuable thing a small business owns.
• Confidentiality — NDAs, controlled disclosure, keeping the crucial part on your own server. It costs nothing, and it is the default until you decide otherwise.

8. Who to talk to

A registered patent attorney is the person you want. It is a distinct profession from a solicitor — technically qualified and separately regulated. The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) publishes a searchable directory, and the register itself is maintained by IPReg. Many offer a free initial conversation, and everything you tell them is confidential. The IPO also publishes free guidance and business support, including an IP Health Check.

The whole thing, on one line

Say nothing publicly → search the prior art → decide honestly whether a patent earns its cost → talk to a patent attorney → file → then use the priority year to find out whether anybody actually wants it.

This guide is general information about UK law and practice, written to help you ask better questions. It is not legal advice, it does not create a professional relationship, and it cannot take account of your circumstances. Patent law is jurisdictional and unforgiving about deadlines — take advice from a registered patent attorney before relying on any of it, and check current fees, timescales and procedure with the Intellectual Property Office.