Patents
11. Your Next Step
If, after having read this treatment, you are interested in pursuing legal protection for your invention, please contact our office to set up an initial office conference with one of our patent professionals to review your situation. Such appointment will, in most cases, be set one or two weeks from the date you contact us to schedule same. In the interim, we will send to you, on request, an Invention Disclosure Form which is designed for the inventor to fill out and bring to the initial interview. This Form asks you to complete a series of questions which cause you to set out details of your invention and the circumstances surrounding its creation in an organized fashion that will not only form a permanent record of your invention for your own records, but will allow the patent professional conducting your initial interview to have before him/her all of the pertinent details of your invention so as to allow him to focus upon the issues with which you are concerned during the initial conference without overlooking any of the details. Thus, it is important that the Invention Disclosure Form be fully completed to the best of your ability prior to your attending your initial office interview if you wish to derive maximum benefit from the time allotted for your interview, which is normally about one hour.
As to confidentiality, all disclosures made to our firm are treated with the strictest confidentiality. As a firm of Barristers & Solicitors and Patent & Trade-Mark Agents, we are subject to the disciplinary proceedings by both the Law Society of Upper Canada (which licences lawyers to practice in Ontario) and the Patent Office (which licences patent agents to practise in Canada). Moreover, we are also members of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada, which professional organization sets and administers a Code of Ethics for all member patent agents practising in Canada. If requested, we will date and sign a copy of the Disclosure Form at the initial interview so as to provide you with a detailed record of your disclosure to us.