03 February 2006 SIDElines DO-IT-YOURSELF PATENT PROTECTION

Entrepreneurs wishing to file their own provisional patents can draw on a new tool that will help them avoid common mistakes made by individuals trying to tackle the patent system alone. e-Learning development company Trydian Interactive has partnered Smit & Van Wyk Patent Attorneys to produce a step-by-step guide to do-it-yourself patenting. Called the Patent Toolkit, it will provide inventors with everything they need to file provisional patent applications themselves and ensure that their ideas and intellectual property are properly protected. Typically, people filing provisional patent applications have two options. They can hire patent attorneys to draft their applications at a very high cost or they can file their applications on their own without any guidance. "Filing applications is a technical exercise," says attorney Wessel van Wyk. "If it is not done correctly it results in inadequate protection and the loss of the inventors' rights to their inventions." The Patent Toolkit, which is being launched this month, will provide an affordable solution to inventors who want to "do it themselves". It will contain an introductory course on drafting patent specifications and many examples of best practice and common mistakes, as well as the forms necessary for filing an application. It will also include the template used by patent attorneys when drawing up a client's patent specification.