When to Seek for a Professional Piece of Advice?

Applying for patents and utility models and later exploiting them on the market can be very complex from a technical, legal or business point of view.

Wrong or omitted actions in the initial phase can have negative consequences on the final outcome of the requested protection. Given the complex technical issues, the method of drafting a patent application or utility model application can significantly affect the outcome and scope of protection, so it can easily happen that a person without experience in drafting applications omits an important detail and thus does not achieve protection or protection of his invention in desired scope. It is important to know that such omissions and "holes" in protection can be used by competitors to bypass existing protection.

Also, experience shows that the lack of knowledge and inexperience of the applicant often leads to the suspension of the procedure or the rejection of the application, due to failure to take an action in the procedure or to take it untimely.

It is wise to consider the possibility of timely engagement of appropriate experts to provide professional assistance and advice before submitting an application. To ensure that you achieve quality protection of your invention, it is advisable to seek the advice and assistance of a registered representative in the preparation of a patent application and procedure, in order to avoid the risk of loss of rights or inadequate protection.

Please note that the officials of the competent patent office (in Croatia, it is the State Intellectual Property Office) can only help you by acquainting you with the principles of patent protection and formal aspects of the procedure, but they cannot draft an application for you or conduct the procedure on your behalf.

If you have decided to apply for a patent or utility model without professional help, you can find the contents that can be useful to you in the chapter Forms and Publications.