Services
European patent services, from the first search to your portfolio
A European patent application, a freedom-to-operate analysis before a launch or a hard look at the patents you already hold: you work directly with me, your European Patent Attorney, on each of these. Every service starts with your market, not with the patent office.
Most companies come to me with one concrete question. Below you can read what each service covers, when it makes sense and what you get out of it. Not sure where to start? A strategy call usually settles that.
How I work with companies from outside Europe
Before I look at the technology, I want to know where your revenue comes from, who will buy the product and which competitor is closest to it. Those answers decide what we protect, in which countries and how broadly. Only then do we go into the chemistry or the engineering.
You deal with me directly throughout. If you already have patent counsel in your own country, I work alongside them and handle the European part of the procedure. Read more about my work as a chemical patent attorney and my background.
The services on this page:
- European patent applications: drafting and proceedings before the European Patent Office
- Patent searches: what already exists, before you file or invest
- Freedom-to-operate analysis: whether patents held by others block your launch
- Patent strategy: which protection pays off, and where
- Patent or trade secret: which route fits your invention
- More value from your patents: a review of the portfolio you already have
European patent applications drafted around your market
A patent lets you stop others from making, using or selling your invention in the countries where it is in force. What that is worth comes down to the claims, so that is where most of my work goes.
Before I draft, we pin down what is new and where a competitor would look for an alternative. I then write the claims to cover those alternatives as well, not only the version you built in the lab. With chemical inventions, a slightly different compound, ratio or process window can decide what you end up protecting.
Nothing new can be added once the application is filed, so the drafting has to be right the first time. I then handle the proceedings before the European Patent Office through to grant, checking that the claims still match what matters commercially.
The routes into Europe and their deadlines are covered on patent protection in Europe, and what the EPO expects from a chemical application on chemical patents in Europe.
Patent searches before you file or invest
A patent search shows what is already known about your technology: earlier patents, scientific publications and other public information, together called the prior art. Which search you need depends on your question.
- Novelty search: before you file, to see what sets your invention apart and where there is room for protection.
- Validity search: to find out how strong a granted patent really is, whether it is yours or a competitor's.
- Freedom-to-operate analysis: before a launch, to check the patents of others.
The EPO runs its own search, but only after the application has been filed. Searching beforehand lets me shape the claims around what we find. And don't dismiss your own invention too quickly: what looks obvious to someone who works with the technology every day can still be inventive in patent terms.
A validity search can also support an opposition: within nine months of grant, anyone can challenge a European patent at the EPO. For that, I work with the team at Novacon IP.
Freedom-to-operate analysis before you launch in Europe
A freedom-to-operate (FTO) analysis answers one question: can you make and sell your product in Europe without infringing patents held by others that are still in force?
I look at the patents and applications that matter in the countries where you manufacture or sell, and whether your product falls within their claims. A granted European patent only has effect where it has been validated, or in the participating EU member states if it has unitary effect. A patent that looks threatening on paper may not apply in your markets at all.
Pending applications count too, because they can still be granted. They are only published 18 months after filing or priority, so no search sees the most recent ones.
If something is in the way, there are usually options: adjust the product, take a license, or establish that the patent is weaker than it looks or about to expire. Run the analysis while the product design can still change.
Patent strategy: protection where it pays off
A patent strategy starts with where your business is heading. Which protection gives you exclusivity, keeps a competitor out or carries weight in a financing round or an acquisition? From there I work back to which inventions you protect, in which markets, and what you leave unprotected.
I also look from the competitor's side: where would I start if I wanted to design around your patent? An inventor I worked with had come up with something new in the composition of ground coffee, but only talked about capsules for one well-known brand. Claim only that capsule, and a competitor simply switches to another system or a bag of beans. The protection belongs on the invention itself.
Where you protect follows from your market. A patent only counts where it is in force, and every country adds renewal fees each year. No budget covers everything everywhere, so we choose what pays off. How that works for a European patent, from the Unitary Patent to the UPC opt-out, is covered on European patent strategy.
Patent or trade secret: decide before anything goes public
A patent lets you stop others for up to twenty years from filing, and in return your invention is published for anyone to read. A trade secret keeps the knowledge in-house, but gives you no right against a competitor who finds the same solution or works it out from your product.
A useful rule of thumb: can someone tell from your end product how it was made? Then a secret will not hold, and a patent is the better choice. If your edge lies in a process nobody can see in the product, secrecy can be smarter. Often you combine the two: patent the visible part, keep the production process secret.
We make that choice before you show the invention to customers or investors. Secrecy also takes work: under EU trade secret law, information is only protected if you have taken reasonable steps to keep it secret, such as confidentiality agreements and limited access. Trade secrets are one of my specialties: I am Vice Chair of AIPPI's Standing Committee on Trade Secrets.
More value from the patents you already hold
Renewal fees go up as a patent gets older, and a patent that protects nothing your business depends on only costs money. Portfolios tend to grow with whatever comes out of the lab, and few companies check later whether each patent still fits. These situations come up again and again:
- You pay renewal fees on patents for a product you no longer sell.
- You keep protection in countries where you do not sell and do not plan to.
- A competitor copies your product and nothing happens.
- Your key patent expires in a few years and nothing is lined up to follow it.
I review your patents against your business goals and your competitors. For a large portfolio, I scale up with the team at Novacon IP. We put the ones that matter to better use. The ones that add nothing, you can let lapse, patent by patent and country by country. Improvements to your product can be protected again, so your protection keeps pace with the business. If a competitor copies you anyway, I support you through Novacon IP.
Questions about European patent services
That depends on where you are. Before you file, the first step is a clear view of your business goals and a search of what already exists. Before a launch, it is a freedom-to-operate analysis, and if you already hold patents, a review of your portfolio. Settling that is exactly what the first strategy call is for.
A novelty search looks at your own invention: what is already known, and where is there room to protect it? A freedom-to-operate analysis looks at patents held by others: could they block your product once it is on the market? Before a launch you often need both.
Before you put serious money into the market, such as a launch, a scale-up or entry into a new European country. Much earlier makes little sense, because the product has to be concrete enough to compare with the claims. Much later, and an injunction or a recall hits an investment you have already made.
Yes. If another firm is handling your European application or patent, I review it against your business goals and take it over where that is possible. From then on you decide at each step whether we continue. The only fixed points are the deadlines of the European Patent Office.
Chemistry is where I go deepest: compounds, formulations, processes, polymers, coatings and other materials. I also work on biomedical applications and biotech. At Patents4Business you deal with me directly, so the person who judges the technology is also the one who drafts the claims.
Not sure which service fits? Start with your question
Tell me what you have developed, where you want to sell it and what worries you about it. After about half an hour we both know whether it is worth looking further.