Protection of Patents
You manage innovative projects. Your company, lab, or university host research centers with imaginative mindset and talents.
You have set up futuristic patents for your market. Technologies not yet developed in your area :
- How can you give more value to your patent by minimizing the risks of being copied?
- How do you ensure that others do not get away with tapping into your research once your products are commercialized or your work is published?
- How can we find out about the possible existence of previous patents that would prevent your one from being patentable or, worse, from being commercialized?
A patent application is a legal and technical document: it defines the invention whose property is claimed and must meet validity criteria.
What is a patent? The patent rewards the creative efforts of inventors as well as the significant investments made for technical progress. The patent and its use are often perceived as complex; patent law itself ignored by inventors.
What we can do for you
Our team of experts is there to support you in your approach, from the development of a strategy to protect your invention to its implementation. What we can do for you:
- Listen: First, we learn about your invention. Your work is part of a technical context for solving a technical, social, etc., problem. and within a legal framework whose constraints we must also measure constraints.
- Understand: Our engineers are your direct contacts. They are high-level engineers and scientists in their field, able to understand the technical content of your work and study the state of the art. They are able to carry out documentary searches of prior art or prior art. The first of their missions is to examine with you the invention in all its aspects in order to ensure that the contours are well determined
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Write : In close collaboration with inventors, to ensure that the invention is well described and that its essential elements are hierarchically claimed, our engineers help you to obtain a solid descriptive brief that is as broad as possible and that allows you to assert your rights in case of litigation
Filing : Filing and tracking patent applications at OAPI is the specialty of our corporate services team. Their main strengths are rigor and training, and its reliability is matched only by its sense of service and result
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Get : Our team follows the process of examining your patents from the time they are filed to the time they are issued: responses to official OAPI examination notifications. Its task is to advise you in the best way by proposing strategies adapted to your project or company and to the difficulties of the examination
Defend or Attack : Litigation on all aspects of patents may occur, including seizures-infringement, legal actions for infringement (attack or defence) and actions for nullity or revocation (invalidation). Our team has lawyers who are always at your side to defend you and help you assert your rights
- Advisor : We know how to listen and understand technical considerations. We also know how to listen, understand and take into account the economic and strategic issues, including the deposit at the OAPI or abroad, which are yours
- Evaluate : Finally, in the context of transfers of patents, licenses or due diligence, we have the hindsight and know-how to audit patent portfolios
To provide you with these services in a constant concern for quality and cost control, we put at your disposal a multidisciplinary team of qualified consultants and specialized engineers, able to intervene effectively in the following technical fields :- products and systems for electrical installations and information networks;
- optical technologies (lasers, components, switches, etc.);
semiconductors; - software and electronics (Transmission systems, signal processing, DSL technologies, wireless technologies, data compression technologies, Network management, broadband access, data transfer technologies,);
- pharmacology.
Our Services
IP Obtaining
Trademarks, models and designs, patents Trade names, plant varieties, traditional knowledge.
IP protecting
Litigation, Anti-Counterfeiting, Monitoring and watch services
IP Valorization
IP Benchmark , IP Audit, Technology Transfer, Financial Evaluation, draft agreement
IP Training
Trademarks, models and designs, patents Trade names, plant varieties, traditional knowledge.
Request a free consultation
Our team will give you more information about our services, our fees, and especially how we can help you
Frequently asked question
How much does filing a patent cost?
Filing an invention patent includes official fees and consultancy services provided by our design professionals. The cost of filing with OAPI is approximately CFAF 590,000 for a patent of up to 10 claims.
The support of a professional is essential in the drafting of a patent in order to obtain the widest possible scope of protection in the jurisdictions of interest
Protection of business secrets
Business secrecy means know-how and commercial information which are valuable because of their secrecy, which are intended to remain confidential and for which the holder has made arrangements to keep them secret.
Business secrets can cover different types of information such as: processes, concepts, research data, software, etc.
What is an Utility models
A utility model is an industrial property title that, like patents, protects inventions, but has little creative value or less inventive step. Utility models generally apply to inventions of less technical complexity, which is why they are also known as “small patents”, “utility innovations” or “short-term patents”.