A start-up company headquartered at the Invent Centre incubator on the campus of Dublin City University, Sigmoid Pharma, is in favour of a unitary patent for the European Union.
The company is known for its two proprietary oral pharmaceutical formulation technologies called LEDDS and SmPill.
Ivan Coulter, CEO of Sigmoid Pharma, says it usually begins by applying for patents in Ireland, the UK and the US, before going further.
On the issue of the introduction of the unitary patent in the EU, Coulter says he is in favour of the idea, as he believes it could go a long way to streamline the patent procedure.
Last March, after more than 50 years of negotiation, the EU Competitiveness Council decided to authorise the use of the enhanced co-operation procedure for the creation of a single European patent. It is hoped this will become a reality later this year.
Coulter believes the patent application process, in general, should be made cheaper and faster, as he points out that in certain areas there is somewhat of a patent application backlog.
Advice on seeking a patent
Advising those looking to undergo a patent application, Coulter says companies should know their invention extremely well and be careful not to talk about it with anyone else.
Coulter suggests, too, that companies should not assume no one has ever created the invention they’re hoping to patent.
He also says companies should understand not only the patent landscape, but academic literature associated with patents, as well.
This is an extract from an article which first appeared in Owner Manager magazine. You can read more from this article on Bizstartup.ie here.
