A patent gives you a competitive advantage. A newly developed product is safeguarded against copying, and a better financial result will be achieved if the product is protected through a patent.

By a patent others are prevented from exploiting your inventions. For up to 20 years it will be possible to sell the product without having to compete with other suppliers on price.

When a patent has been granted, the period of protection is counted from the date of application. Thus, the legal protection is retroactive. Therefore, the copying of a product, which is the subject of a patent application, may also carry liability for damages. In this way an important competitive advantage is achieved already by the filing of the application. Through information, for instance by a note on the product that patent has been applied for, the competition is warned that copying will not be accepted.

An invention may be highly sophisticated, or it may be simple, like the paper clip. Common to good inventions is that they involve a technical solution which can be exploited financially. Patents are granted for technical novelties, but systems, methods and substances can be patented. The invention may not have been described in, for example, brochures, magazines, newspapers or patent documents. Nor may it have been used or disclosed in such a way that it may have become known to the public. If the invention has not been publicly disclosed outside the company, it is normally considered to be new.

It is also a condition that the idea is an invention in a legal sense, it must possess so-called "inventive merit". This means that the idea must be substantially different from what is already known. It is not a condition that the invention includes new components. A new arrangement of known components could be patentable if the combination is sufficiently extraordinary.