As questions behind trade tariffs and political instability continue, Garth Leslie encourages a domestic response that’s long been employed by the British Special Air Service.
Which is to say, who dares wins.
An associate lawyer with Oyen Wiggs Green & Mutala LLP, Leslie advises Canadian manufacturers to be proactive rather than reactive with respect to intellectual property (IP) and patent applications.
“Ongoing uncertainty over tariffs with our neighbours to the south has led to renewed consumer demand for ‘Made in Canada’ products,” Leslie says. “As a result, manufacturing in Canada may have increased value as a competitive advantage over manufacturing in other countries.”
Oyen Wiggs is Western Canada's largest independent intellectual property law firm and has a practice that focuses solely on IP law, including patents, trademarks and copyright. Leslie is part of a team of 20 professionals (including lawyers, patent agents and trademark agents) with expertise in the fields of engineering, physics, software, electronics, chemistry and biotechnology, among other areas.
In Leslie’s case, his background in mechanical engineering sees him well-positioned to assist small to medium-sized manufacturing companies – such as machine shops doing fabrication work for others, or companies producing products for their own sale.
“These companies may be interested to know that patent protection is not merely available for the latest gadgets,” Leslie says. “In appropriate circumstances, methods and processes for manufacturing products can also be protected by a patent, even where those processes employ well-known equipment.”
As Leslie explains, patents extend protection over an invention through its claims. The claims are often described as setting up a fence around the invention so that no one can enter the fence – use, make or sell the content of the claims – without authorization or license from the patent owner.
Leslie notes that regardless of the type of claim, there is a requirement that the invention, and therefore the claim, be “new, inventive and useful” to be patentable. A new claim means that the subject matter has not been publicly disclosed anywhere in the world before the filing date of the patent application in which the claim is included.
An inventive claim essentially means that the subject matter is not an obvious modification or combination of previous public disclosures and/or the “common general knowledge” of a skilled person in the field of the invention.
Novelty and inventiveness are assessed according to all public disclosures, including those made by the inventor, and so secrecy is paramount before a patent application is filed. “Until you have had the opportunity to discuss your idea with a patent professional, such as a member of our team, it is best not to go public with your innovations,” Leslie says.
A useful claim is one that is capable of a practical purpose or an actual result. Upon first point of contact, Leslie’s new clients should be at a stage where they are able to render their idea in at least one physical form or implementation – they don’t need to have a prototype made, but they should be in a position where they could construct one.
“We can then guide the client’s exploration of other ways to physically implement the idea and claims can be developed from there,” Leslie says.
In the world of IP, taking the reactive route rather than the proactive one can be disastrous. A valid patent gives the owner a monopoly to use the subject matter for up to 20 years. Failing to follow through on the patenting process represents the potential loss of a significant competitive advantage.
And absent a patent, it is possible that a competitor could implement a company’s proprietary technology or processes and profit from that company’s innovation with little to no legal recourse.
“I consider the grant of the patent a win,” Leslie says. “This is a collaboration between the client and us, with the client providing their knowledge and expertise in the technology and our team providing our expertise in rendering that knowledge into valid claims that can be accepted by a patent examiner and granted.”
For more information on Oyen Wiggs and to get in touch today, visit www.patentable.com.
