Patent clearance requirements

Patent rights govern the protection of an invention. The legislation grants the owner of the patent monopoly rights to use it for a fixed period in the country where the patent is granted. Therefore, the requirement for patent clearance is expressed in ensuring that the used technical solution does not fall under the action of patents in a particular country. In other words, the main feature restricting the application of one or another patented principle is territorial. This means that the export of products to a country where the technical solution patented in the product design is patented is inadmissible both from the point of view of international rights and ethics — the appropriation of the product of mental (creative) human activity. Violation of these requirements leads to large economic costs (arrest of products, fines) and moral losses (lower prestige). On the contrary, the use of foreign inventions in countries where they are not patented, including in Russia, is not limited.

Specific technical solutions are subject to analysis of patent purity, for example, electrical and kinematic diagrams, designs for the component parts of the product, silhouette, shape, trademark (the designation placed on the product indicating the manufacturer), etc., thanks to which the product becomes original.

Verification of design options for patent purity is carried out at the stages of a technical proposal, conceptual and technical design. The assessment of the patent law level is carried out by calculating two indicators: patent protection and patent purity.

Indicator of patent purity is determined separately for each country where it is intended to sell these products.

A patent form is a document that is designed to determine the patentability, patent purity and technical level of objects: products, technological processes, methods of measurement and testing, etc. It contains the necessary information that allows you to evaluate the design in relation to patent protection and patent purity on all stages of development. The patent form reflects the technical level of the object and its competitiveness.

Patent law requirements characterize the protection of the product's ability and its patent purity and is an essential factor in determining the competitiveness of a product [31].
Requirements of protection ability include the novelty of the technical solution, its significant differences , usefulness and legal design .
A technical solution is considered new if, prior to the priority date, its essence has not become known to an indefinitely wide circle of people. If a technical solution has become known only to an indefinite, narrow circle of people, for example, a technical commission, employees of this department, with a certain composition of familiar leaders of the highest authority, then the novelty of the technical solution is preserved.
The technical solution has significant differences , if compared with the solutions known before the priority date, it is characterized by a new set of features that give a positive effect.
At the same time, not each of the signs should be new - a new set of features should be in general, which distinguishes this solution from known (analogues), including the closest solutions to it (prototype). Differences should be significant. The properties of the protection of the ability of ordinary engineering proposals (for example, equivalent replacements) are deprived.
The usefulness is called the positive effect that will bring a technical solution in the case of its application, and not once, but repeatedly, steadily.
The legal execution of a technical solution may be in the form of a copyright certificate or patent.
A copyright certificate is a legal document certifying the recognition of a technical solution as an invention and fixes authorship and priority (precedence). The copyright certificate, securing certain rights and benefits for the author-developer, gives the state the right of exclusive use of the invention.
A patent is a document certifying authorship and the exclusive right to dispose of this invention. The patent holder may grant permission for its use (license).
Patent cleanliness requirements. Patent purity characterizes the independence of this technical solution under the action of the patents of the country where it is used.
Patent purity is a local concept, i.e. determined only for specific countries and on a specific date.
The patent is limited in time. The law of each country provides a deadline (15-20 years), after which the patent expires. In a number of countries, the law provides for the possibility of extending the term of a patent with the corresponding publication about it.
Industrial designs and trademarks as industrial property .
Before an industrial design , features include the appearance of the product: its shape, shape, and elements of the exterior design that give the product aesthetic value and are distinguished by their novelty and originality.

External features visible in the finished product are subject to protection if they are the result of independent creative development.
Violation of a patent (certificate) for an industrial design is considered to be the sale of products, which may not be completely identical to the registered sample, however it makes the consumer feel like the analogy with this example and thus may mislead the consumer regarding the manufacturer of this product. It does not matter if there is a copy space, or if this is just a coincidence. Compared with similar products, it can be compared by means of their alternate, rather than simultaneous display, in order to establish the fact of the generality of their visual perception, and not the formal coincidence of individual features of the external appearance. The use of individual elements of the external design is not a violation of the patent, if there is no impression of a common visual perception of the product as a whole.
Under the trademark understand the notation that is placed on the products in order to distinguish the goods of one manufacturing company from the monotonous goods of other enterprises. A trademark refers to the product as a whole, and not to its parts. Placing the trademark on the production, the manufacturer assumes responsibility for the quality of the product as a whole, including components, semi-finished products and materials that are included in it.
Patent and legal requirements are reflected in the patent application form - a design text document, the preparation of which is mandatory when developing a product design. The patent form begins to be filled in by the developer from the very beginning of development and is presented at all stages with approved documentation for all products, including those intended only for domestic consumption.
In court practice on patent disputes, there are cases when patent holders waited for several years without filing lawsuits, because they expected that during this time their alleged losses would increase and, consequently, the size of the claim would increase.
The patent protection indicator expresses the degree of product protection by copyright certificates and patents in the countries of intended export. It is determined by the formula

s.n. s.n

O.p. = S mi ( Mi / N m) + a S mi ( Ni / N m) (1.23)

i = 1 i = 1

where sz.n is the number of significance groups (as a rule, three groups are established: especially important, main and auxiliary) Mi is the number of components of the i -th significance group protected by copyright certificates; Ni is the number of components of the i-th significance group, patent; Nsc is the total number of components; a is a weighting factor depending on the number of countries in which patents are obtained and the degree of their importance for the export of products.
Patent purity requirements of the product must ensure that there are no claims from patent holders in the country of use. In other words, a product, as a set of technical solutions, should not be subject to patent statements in effect in a particular country of intended export for a limited period (15–20 years).
The indicator of patent purity of the PCF describes the possibility of selling products in our country and abroad. Calculated by the formula

s.n

Ppch = 1 - S mi ( Ni / N sch) (1.24)

i = 1

Given the local nature of patents, the HRV indicator should be calculated separately for our country and each country of the intended export.
The rules for drafting patent forms intended for assessing the protection ability (patentability) and patent purity of a product are given in the standard