Protecting Your IP - Medical Device Design: Innovation from Concept to Market - page 300

Although the filing of a patent is relatively cheap, the cost of drawing up the document can,
with ease, run into thousands of dollars. But this cost pales in comparison when compared
with the upkeep of the patent. A modest patent portfolio that covers the major markets (i.e.,
EC, USA) could easily cost $40,000-$100,000 per year. Hence you need to think carefully
about the costs.
13.2.1.1 Filing
A patent's life starts at the point of discussion with a patent attorney about the filing of the
patent. A patent attorney is not there to decide whether your patent is any good; they only
follow your instructions to file - you need to do some background work. Before you approach
a patent agent you should conduct a prior art search. Prior art is any information that is in
the public domain that relates to your patent - and it can be in any field from agriculture to
zoology. The only person qualified to do this search is yourself; you know your device and
you know your IP, hence you are best placed to investigate anything that has gone before. All
patent offices have online search engines that enable you to look through the patent history.
Indeed the UK office has a wonderful search engine at http://gb.espacenet.com/ that allows
you to search global patent databases ( Figure 13.1 ). Do not stop here: prior art need not only
be patents. It can be publications, news print - anything that is quantifiably in the public
Figure 13.1
A typical result from a patent search using Espacenet using keywords Magnetic and Resonance.