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A patent is a monopoly for an invention, effective within the country, for a maximum period of 20 years for a standard patent and 8 years for an innovation patent.
Having a patent means you have exclusive rights to make or sell your patented invention within the country. This means a competitor cannot have a copy product made overseas and then import it into the country.
A patent or a patent application is intellectual property (IP). Similar to other forms of property, IP has value which can be sold or licensed to others. You may have heard for example of big companies such as Google acquiring other companies primarily for their IP portfolio (families of patents).
Patents are provided by the government as encouragement to promote innovation, as innovators know that they can get monopoly protection for a specified period for their investment in developing their innovative ideas.
Patents are also provided as a teaching tool, in that complete patent specifications describing the invention are published after 18 months. This allows others to learn from your innovation. When the patent expires, the knowledge becomes free for all to use.
For more info visit:
http://www.protectmyidea.com.au/
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