Benefits of protecting inventions

There are many advantages to be gained by protecting your inventions:

• A solid market position and a competitive advantage
• A title of protection for an invention gives its holder the exclusive right to prevent others from using the protected invention commercially, thus reducing uncertainty, risk and competition.

• An increase in profits and better returns on investments
• If you have invested a significant amount of time and money in R&D, protecting any resulting inventions will contribute to recovering costs and obtaining a greater return on investments.

• Additional income from the transfer or licensing of the protection right
• As the owner of a protection right for an invention, you can generate additional income by assigning (selling) the right to third parties or through a licensing agreement, authorising third parties to exploit your invention in exchange for fixed sums and/or royalties.

• Access to technology by cross-licensing
• If you are interested in technology owned by others, you can use your titles of protection to negotiate cross-licensing agreements.

• Access to new markets
• Licensing protected inventions can give you access to new markets that might otherwise be inaccessible. In order to do this, the invention must also be protected in the relevant foreign markets.

• Preventing others from protecting your invention
• Although a title of protection for an invention does not in itself give the “right to use” the invention, it does stop others from patenting similar or identical inventions and provides an indication that the protected invention is new and significantly different from the "state of the art".

• Increasing the capacity for obtaining funding at a reasonable interest rate
• Ownership of rights for the protection of inventions or license to use the rights of others can increase your ability to obtain capital to launch a product onto the market.

• Increased capacity to take legal action
• Possessing a title of protection considerably increases your ability to successfully take legal actions against those who copy or imitate your protected invention.

• Giving an innovative image to your products
• It is advisable to indicate the patent number on the product, on its packaging or in advertising, in order to project an innovative image to the public.