A Complete Guide to Patent a Mobile App Idea
Do you have any mobile app ideas, which can 100% be stolen by competitors to set a benchmark in the market? Are you scared that someone will copy your idea? If yes, you need to apply for legal ownership of that idea. Plagiarism is a common practice, and if you want to save your hard work and the uniqueness of the idea, take a step ahead and begin with the patent procedure of your mobile app.
We have come up with all the information that you might be looking to patent your mobile app idea! Let’s learn more about the industry.
Why Patent your Unique Mobile App Idea?
The primary reason is that if you don’t let other people steal your hard work and unique ideas, apply for patents. To maintain the authenticity of the creator/innovator, the government has created essential laws to protect our unique idea. Let’s see how patenting is in your favour:
- It helps protect the idea from being financially exploited by unauthorized people.
- It allows the patent holder to have legal action against the people who try to release the clone app.
- It acts as proof of your idea’s uniqueness & novelty and thus saves you from all sorts of legal complexities.
For instance, in 1994, Apple accused Microsoft of stealing its GUI idea. But, later the government-supported Microsoft as there was no patent registered on the name of Apple. To save yourself from losing the novelty of products/services, patent registration is necessary.
Step by Step method to Apply for Mobile App Patenting
To patent your Mobile App, one needs to follow a certain procedure, which should be in a certain pattern. App development companies can assist you with the entire patenting procedure and make it easy for you to get the legal stamp from the government.
Step 1: Hire a Patent Attorney
To boost the chances of selecting your app idea for patenting, it is important to first hire a patent attorney who has enough experience in the field. Patenting is a legal procedure, it is better to hire a professional who knows how to do it, without breaking any legal rules. Instead of hiring an agent, one must hire a legal firm that has software-specialized patenting attorneys.
Step 2: Disclosure
After hiring an experienced patent attorney, the next big and risky thing is to disclose your unique mobile app idea. To get the court approval, the aspirant needs to pass the aspects like realism, feasibility and other required eligibility criteria. It is necessary to document the whole process of disclosure to provide proof to the court. Use drawings, flowcharts, and features, but make sure you can prove the app’s functionality.
Step 3: Patent Search
Research is the most important of all procedures, after disclosing the app idea, deep patent research will be done by hired patent attorney to eliminate all sorts of possible plagiarism/legal issues and to fasten the patent filed process.
To decide the patent type, quick research is important to understand all the terms/conditions, the goal of the app idea, features finalization etc.
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Step 4: Application Filing
The application for a Patent can be filled in two types either in provisional or non-provisional type. The type of application filling depends on the uniqueness of the idea and market size. If you want to get your patent as soon as possible, Provisional applications are filled more quickly than non-provisional ones. Here are details you need to mention while filing the patent application:
- Specification: Mention the app idea, background, title and summary of the application.
- Claims: The whole idea should be unique and a claim cannot be done on anything which belongs to a third party.
- Drawings – If there are any visual interfaces and supporting drawings, all should be represented as flowcharts, figures and drawings to eliminate any sort of confusion.
Step 5: Submission of the Application
After filling out the application form and mentioning details, submission is the most challenging step of patenting your app idea. The entire process is lengthy and hectic and requires a lot of paperwork and legal procedure.
Alternative of Patenting
Patenting is not the only way to protect the uniqueness of your idea, there are other ways alternatives options available:
- Copyright
Copyright is somewhat like a Patent and comes under Intellectual Property Rights. In copyright, all legal rights are issued in the name of the inventor. Copyright is basically done for artistic work and allows the public to reproduce or publicise the work after taking permission from the copyright holder. Patent registration lasts for 20 years, whereas copyright registration lasts for 60 years and even after the demise of the owner.
- Trademark
Trademark helps an individual to protect the symbols, logos, phrases and everything that makes them unique and identification of the product/services. Therefore, if you have the same logo, phrases etc. go for a trademark and avoid cloning your uniqueness.
- Non-Disclosure Agreements
Non-Disclosure Agreements are created between the two parties, where the client who is taking the services needs to keep all the technicalities and services provided by the other party confidential. Thus, it protects your idea, services and whole procedure from leaking out to the public.
Conclusion
Now, you have all the knowledge and reasons why to patent your mobile app idea before it gets too late for you. Indeed the process is long and complex, but with the assistance of mobile app developers; you got this. Such development services are well aware of the procedure and its requirement to help you to get over the procedure as soon as possible.
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