Our areas of expertise

Patents

Protection can be obtained for an invention by secrecy or by filing a patent application.

Patent protection makes it possible to grant the holder an operating monopoly over his invention in the territory where the patent is in force for a maximum period of 20 years in return for publication of the patent application 18 months after its filing date.

The first step consists of filing a patent application with a national Industrial Property office; the INPI is the French Industrial Property office.

The Cabinet Moutard puts all of its expertise at your disposal to write the patent application, so as to obtain optimal protection for your invention.

The patent application filed with the INPI is then subject to:

• an administrative examination in order to verify compliance with the conditions of form,

• a technical examination, which consists in particular of determining whether the subject matter of the patent is a single invention and therefore meets the "unity of invention" criterion, whether the claimed invention is affected by an exclusion stipulated by the law, and whether it undermines good character.

Eight to nine months after the filing, the INPI sends a preliminary Search Report and an opinion on the patentability of the invention.

The Search Report includes documents in the prior art related to the field of the invention. These prior documents, which may consist of patents or scientific publications, are rated according to their technical relevance.

In the opinion on the patentability of the invention, the Examiner expresses his opinion in particular on the novelty, inventive step and possibility of industrial application of the invention.

If the preliminary Search Report includes prior documents which were considered particularly relevant by the Examiner, a supported written response refuting the relevance of these documents and possibly modifying the claims must be sent to the INPI. This is also a delicate task, and the Cabinet Moutard uses all of its expertise to perform it.

At the end of this examination procedure, if the patent application meets the conditions of form and patentability, the INPI issues the patent in return for the payment of an issuance fee.

The Cabinet Moutard can advise you, in particular after receipt of the French Search Report, on the best strategy to adopt in order to protect your invention abroad.

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