Protecting Your IP - Medical Device Design: Innovation from Concept to Market - page 303

Figure 13.3
Further information (extract from Espacenet window).
It is worth noting that you may wish to sell your patent to a bigger player. In this case think
about where they are likely to want the patent filed - almost definitely the list will include
the EC, USA, and Japan. Your patent attorney/agent will be able to advise you on the current
most efficient method to do this.
13.2.2 Registered Design (Design Patent)
This type of IP is concerned with appearance only. If you are unable to secure a patent on the
basis of invention then this is a good backstop as, once granted, no one is allowed to make an
object that looks like yours. For example, your device may look like a blue pony -and it has
to look like a blue pony to work. A registered design would stop anyone making anything that
resembled your blue pony. It does not stop them making a pink one or a blue horse.
If the appearance of your device is a big issue to your device then a registered design may be
a useful method of securing some IP protection.
Figure 13.4 was produced using a search in the UK registered design database for medical and
laboratory equipment/endoscope. A registered design is a very cheap way of protecting a device 1 ,
but all your competitors need do is change a simple line or color and the protection has gone.
13.3 Keeping Mum
Arguably one of the best known sayings from the Second World War allied propaganda
machine was:
“Loose lips might sink ships.”
1 In a recent radio interview James Dyson (of the famous Dyson vacuum cleaner) stated that his registered designs
were his most valuable pieces of IP. This was, he said, because the first thing someone will copy is how your
device looks...if only to fool the customer into thinking it is the “real thing,” or “it looks the same, hence it must
be the same.”