• Lobby

  • Where to register an invention?

Suppose you're in Lebanon, and you invented something, and you have all the needed papers, you've documented it and everything, where to register it?

I asked a friend, he said he did invent something before and paid a lot of money to register it in lebanon, but it's not good idea to register inventions in lebanon, they could still be stolen, he said that the best way is to register it on wipo.org but i can't see how you could do that on that site.

So does anyone know how to do it?
Fischer wrote I asked a friend, he said he did invent something before and paid a lot of money to register it in lebanon, but it's not good idea to register inventions in lebanon, they could still be stolen, he said that the best way is to register it on wipo.org but i can't see how you could do that on that site.
It seems you have to register for a private account:

https://pct.wipo.int/LoginForms/epct.jsp

But this option seems to be more straight forward:

http://www.wipo.int/pct-safe/en/
Strictly speaking, there's no such a thing as "register an invention". Protecting intellectual property falls into 3 distinct categories AFAIK:
  • Patent law: gives a market advantage for the use of a certain technique or an idea you've invented.
  • Copyright law: protects the work (song, video clip, book, article, source code, ...) and prevents other from using your creation in certain situations.
  • Trademark law: enables and protects the creation of a distinctive identity. It protects logos, slogans, jingles, ...
You should know what you're going after. Copyright is given immediately, upon creation of the work. As soon as you're finished, you're automatically granted copyright to your work. Proving it in court, should a lawsuit happen, might be a bit difficult, but the easiest way to do so is to mail yourself a copy of your work, and have the postal stamp be a proof of copyright.

Trademarks and patents are much more complicated to obtain. Patents, in particular, require a lot of work, research and producing huge technical documents that will probably not be accepted the first time.

If I understand correctly, you're interested in having your invention patented. My advice is to get in touch with a lawyer, as these procedure can be pretty complicated. You shouldn't have too much trouble finding a lawyer specializing in patent law.
@rolf thanks a lot! Now i know how that site works

@rahmu, i'm after the first law, patent Law. Mail it to myself! Nice trick, never thought of it :) I'll contact some lawyers once I'm done, thanks a lot!

One question, could youtube videos be used in court? I mean if i uploaded a video of me explaining how the machine works and everything, could that be used as a proof? since youtube videos have uploading dates, i mean instead of mailing it to myself, or is it better idea to mail it?
Fischer wrote@rolf thanks a lot! Now i know how that site works

@rahmu, i'm after the first law, patent Law. Mail it to myself! Nice trick, never thought of it :) I'll contact some lawyers once I'm done, thanks a lot!

One question, could youtube videos be used in court? I mean if i uploaded a video of me explaining how the machine works and everything, could that be used as a proof? since youtube videos have uploading dates, i mean instead of mailing it to myself, or is it better idea to mail it?
Why not both? Should a lawsuit ever take place multiple pieces of evidence will be better.
Fischer,

The mail-to-yourself trick would prove that you own the copyright over a work. A youtube video would work as well, since you automatically have copyright as soon as you create the work, you just need to prove you did it first.

However that does not grant you an automatic patent. That's a whole different process, that is much more complex. Virtually nobody files for a patent without going through a specialized lawyer.

Let me try to explain this to the best of my knowledge. Keep in mind that IANAL and this advice does not replace going to an actual lawyer if you want to pursue this further.

Say you compose a piece of music. You want to create something from your composition. It could be an mp3 recording, a Youtube video or a piece of paper sheet with the notes written on it. Your immediately have copyright over your creation. This means that you are free to dictate who's allowed to copy it, and under which conditions. (There are limits to copyright protection, but let's not get into this). However, let's say that I compose a similar piece of music. If I manage to prove that I did not copy it, and my composition resembles yours out of pure coincidence (for instance, I was living in a cave in Basque country for 3 years and composed it while I was there), then you cannot prevent me from using my song as well as I please.

A patent is different. It doesn't cover a whole product. The iPhone is not patented, but it contains dozens of patented technologies. Say for instance, a gross simplification, you create a mechanism that produces much more combustion energy by mixing fuel with olive oil. You can then apply for a patent. This is a much more complicated process. You have to produce a patent application that does, among other things:
  • Describe exactly the technology you invented.
  • Prove that no existing technology does what you claim to invent.
  • Produce a big ass document filled with legalese mumbo jumbo.
If, and only if, your application gets accepted, then you'll be awarded the patent. At this point, you are granted monopoly for applications of this invention in every product in the market (for a theoretically short yet unfortunately too long period of time). At this point, any product that will use a olive oil combustion engine will owe you royalties. Even if they happened to invent at the same time as you did, or even before.

Patent law is extremely complicated. (So is copyright, for that matter). Don't trust me, I'm a random dude on the internet. Ask a lawyer, seriously.
Here's a relevant page providing links to the patent law adopted in Lebanon. Available both in English and Arabic.