CONFIDENTIALITY

Most people do not realize that they can lose their patent rights by making a non-confidential disclosure of their invention. Even talking to a friend about your invention can jeopardize your patent rights!

In the United States, if you make an offer to sell, a sale, or a public disclosure of your invention, you will have only one year from the earliest of those events to file a patent application. Otherwise, you will lose your patent rights.

In other words, the U.S. gives you a one-year grace period. During this time, you can test market your invention to see if it will be successful enough to warrant pursuing patent protection. But, if you believe that you will also want to patent your invention in another country, you are generally not permitted to disclose your invention before filing a patent application in that country. Currently, only Canada and Mexico have one-year grace periods like the U.S.

So, if you go public with your invention before filing a patent application, you can lose the ability to patent your invention in Europe, Japan, and other countries where patent protection may be very important. Most countries have a treaty with the U.S. so that, once you file a U.S. patent application, you can disclose your invention provided that you file your foreign applications no later than one year after your U.S. application is filed.