/How To Patent Mobile App Idea
How To Patent Mobile App Idea

How To Patent Mobile App Idea

There are 5 million applications in the app store and more are coming into the market with a great number of features, functionality, and scopes. As more applications are coming into the market, there are apps that are word of the mouth whereas others are just the pile of digital identity of the app.

The app ideas are the culmination of resources, times, time management, hard work, and so on, whereas getting it stolen or leaked can be a great loss to the app idea owner. Thus, protecting it becomes the dire need of it.

Protection and safeguarding the app idea is essential because there might come chances when somebody else uses the app and take the royalty in return creating goodwill in the market while making a sufficient user base.

To keep everything at bay, patenting the app idea becomes crucial here. It is a way through which you can safeguard your app idea from leaking or getting it in the wrong hands.

However, filing the mobile app patent request is a lengthy process consisting of various steps and precautions to take care of.

Here in this blog, we will be discussing the steps involved in the process of mobile app patent filing-

The Ownership

This is the very first step of the mobile app patent process where the owner of the app idea needs to document each and everything about the application to get started with. It is the initial step of the application involving each step and process of the app you will be indulging in.

Thus, to make things streamlined, ensure you are done with a handful of questions like-

  • If your application idea is capable of solving the masses problem?
  • Is there any great additional feature in the application
  • If your app is leading a better result constituting both the input and intuition.

Also, if you got an app idea partner with it, it is good to involve them for the mobile app idea patent filing explaining them of everything.

When this is done, there are some cases when the app owner works under an employer and for himself/herself too. And in the circle, the owner uses the resources of the employer along with using the property too. If any case, the idea got leaked, the chances of an employer using the app idea for the personal terms might increase.

For avoiding such situations, it is good to use personal resources and assets for better processing.

App Research

The second part of the process is to research about the application. Even if your application is great enough to attract users, and the market, not doing research might steal the chance of yours to be the limelight.

Thus, it is important to research the market if someone else in the market has created a somewhat similar app or a solution in or out of the native land. In case your app matches slightly with your app idea, legal actions might occur for you then if you launch your app. Also, loss of resources will take place too.

Then comes a time when the solution is prepared but not launched yet in the market due to several reasons. This will make the patent holder having their rights to still sue another person with almost the same app idea.

To avoid any of the circumstances, it is good to opt for research. Connect with the mobile app development company for a detailed approach.

Attorney And Law Firm

Once done with the app research, next you need to look for a patent attorney and law firm. Never nod for the attorney you meet for the very first time. Research about the patent attorney too.

Documentation

Now it is time for you to document everything about your application idea from beginning to end. There are chances when iOS, Android app developers go ahead with the app prototype only and forget to mention about the app.

Thus, it is good to write down about the patent’s functionality too as protecting the app does not necessarily include code, technology, software, or the technique.

Search & Opinion

After completing the research part, attorney, and app documentation, the next step is to see if your app is eligible or not.

You need to understand that there are apps available in the market like yours or somewhat similar, thus, it becomes your duty to pass on this information to the attorney to get forward with your app patent filing.

Also, due to any reason, if your app got rejected, you can still safeguard the app’s other aspects under design patent law.

Uspto

This is the mobile app patent stage that involves administrative steps, paperwork which is time-consuming and tedious. Here is the list of documents you need to be sure of in hand-

  • Specification
  • Claims
  • Drawings
  • Fee Sheet
  • Oath/Declaration
  • Entity Status Form
  • Application Data Sheet (ADS)
  • Information Disclosure Statement
  • Cover Sheet

These are the steps about the patent a mobile app idea.