Partner Article

The fast patent journey for beginners

Derek Foxcroft is MD of CAT-UK a specialist fuel and emissions reduction systems developer within the transport and automotive industries. Their core product, ECO-CAT, has recently won many awards but the most important of all was the “Patent Pending“ award recently made possible by Newcastle Science City who provided valuable investment to achieve this milestone.

CAT-UK has risen from obscurity to limelight in less than 3 years, almost unheard of in the automotive sector of today. The key to this success has been the ability to quietly develop a technology that works, test it in target vehicles to prove the concept, then to fine tune the technology before filing for “pat pending” status.

Many innovators in the past have bemoaned the slow process that was once the Patent Application Process, not CAT-UK. With the help received from Newcastle Science City and Patent Attorney’s, Murgitroyd’s the whole process took only six weeks which also included the Christmas and New Year Holidays in 2011/12 and a delay in the delivery of the core materials needed to start the filing, so actual timeframe was closer to 4 weeks or less.

The speed at which you can protect your innovation or intellectual property in today’s markets is essential and CAT-UK have taken many people by surprise within their specific industry and other associated markets by the speed of delivery.

The facts speak for themselves. From a projected turnover of £250k for 2011/12 to a multi-million turnover projected for 2012/13 in under 4 months is a staggering step change even when you are ready for it, it is jaw dropping when you are not.

The Patent Process has been made very simple and very quick to engage with, it is no longer the sole domain of the big corporates, now the individual inventor can create a Patent Pending filing at an affordable price with speed.

Mr Foxcroft offers the following advice to would-be inventors “If you have some experience of filing patents and the precise wording required you can file extremely fast in todays markets, however, I would always advise that you have a professional at least “review” the submission before fees are due paying, it is worth every penny”.

CAT-UK has several additional Patent Applications under consideration which will be published during 2012 if their patent searches return favourable conditions in respect of their new technology in different applications.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Derek Foxcroft .