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Patent Criticalities

The things that quietly decide whether an invention can be protected - explained before they cost you anything.

Showing 8 of 56.

High

The wrong people are named as inventors

Inventorship is not authorship, seniority or reward. It is a factual question about who devised the invention **as claimed** - and because claims change during prose…

Before filingIntermediate
High

Nobody decided what the priority date was for

Priority is not a property of your application. It attaches, claim by claim, to whatever was fairly disclosed in the filing you are relying on. Treating it as a sing…

Before filingAdvanced
High

The application is in the wrong name

The applicant is who will own the patent. Getting it wrong affects fee category, chain of title, who can sue, and what an investor sees in diligence - and correcting…

Before filingIntermediate
High

A granted patent can still be taken away

Grant is a decision by an examining office on the material in front of it. Section 13(4) says expressly that it carries no warranty of validity - and there are four …

After grantBeginner
High

The case turns on what one word means

Before anyone asks whether a product infringes, the court decides what the claim means. That single decision then governs both infringement and validity - which is w…

After grantAdvanced
High

What you said to the examiner is a public document

Every argument, amendment and concession made to get a patent granted sits on a public file that anyone can inspect. It is the first thing an opponent's counsel read…

During examinationAdvanced
High

The patent that only covers what you already sell

There is a version of every application that will be granted: the one narrowed to precisely what you already sell. It is also the version competitors do not need to …

During examinationIntermediate
High

The invention changed after you filed

A patent application protects what it described on the day it was filed. Engineering does not stop on that day - and the version you eventually sell is often meaning…

During draftingIntermediate

LowWorth knowing
MediumCould create complications
HighCan materially affect protection
CriticalAct before proceeding

This is the Ragulika IP Educational Criticality - our own editorial prioritisation device, to help you decide what to read first. It is not a legal score, it is not calculated from your facts, and it says nothing about the strength of any particular application.

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Every explanation here links to the ones next to it. Follow the thread rather than the menu.

Educational guidance, not legal advice. This material is published by Ragulika IP for general education and information. It is not legal advice, it does not create a professional-client relationship, and it is not a substitute for advice on your own facts. Patentability, infringement, prosecution strategy and every other IP outcome turn on the specific facts and on the law and Patent Office practice as they stand at the time you act. Please take professional advice before making a decision, and read the underlying provision or judgment before relying on any point stated here.