Before you apply

Patent is a complex field and it is therefore easy to make mistakes. If you do not have much experience with patenting, or have little time to dedicate to the application process, you should consider consulting a professional patent attorney.

A patent attorney can help you to, amongst other things, prepare and compose your patent application. There are a number of strict requirements and deadlines to observe in the patent application process. A patent attorney can assist you by following up on these, in addition to dealing with various payments such as annual fees.

The most common mistake that inventors make is to make their idea public too early, for example on the internet, in a lecture, in a product demonstration, advertisement or article.

If you disclose your idea before you send in your patent application, you have made it public. This can obstruct you from obtaining a patent.

You should check if others may have the rights to the same technology in Norway or abroad. You can do this in several ways.

You can use preliminary examinations to check what inventions and technologies already exist to avoid infringing on the IP rights of others. You can also use preliminary examinations to find inspiration in developing your own ideas. 

If you have applied for a patent in a country (Norway for example) and want to apply for a patent in additional countries, you must make sure to apply within 12 months from when you first submitted your application in the first country.

Have you made a discovery in connection with your work? Are you unsure about what rights you have to your invention? It is possible that there are specific rules for your workplace. It is also possible to transfer the rights to an invention.

The fees for applying for a patent are dependent on how many countries you apply for patent protection in and which countries they are.

See the price overview of fees and charges.

See the overview of the application process in the timeline.

Does your invention have a distinctive design or name/logo? Patent has a novelty requirement, which means that the invention must not be shown to others before you submit the patent application. For design, the novelty requirement is moderated, such that a design can be shown publicly for up to 12 months before you submit your application.

If you wish to combine patent and design registration, you must consider the following:

• The design application must not be made public before you have applied for your patent.
• The design application must be submitted 12 months after the patent application has been made publicly available at the latest due to the grace period.

If you would like to use a name or logo as an identifier for your product, you should consider registering it as a trademark.