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A patent is a legal monopoly giving the inventor of a new and useful device or process (or their company) the right to stop third parties from making, selling, importing or otherwise using the invention without permission.
In order to be patentable, an invention must be novel and inventive at the time of filing a patent application. For an invention to be novel it must not have been disclosed in a non-confidential manner prior to a patent application being filed. To be classed as inventive an invention must be more than an obvious development of what is already known.
Patents are geographically limited and need to be obtained for each country where protection is required. This can be achieved by:
- filing separate national patent applications in each country;
- filing a European Patent Application designating several European countries; or
- filing an "International" (PCT) Patent Application designating a number of countries, which may include Europe.
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