The first step is to have a patent search done. This can be done in any country’s Patent Office in which you wish to market your invention. Commonly, a patent search is conducted in the United States Patent & Trademark Office, as it has an extensive collection of patents, compared to others such as the Canadian Patent Office.
The purpose of having a patent search conducted is twofold:
To attempt to determine the probability of success if you were to apply for a patent for your invention and;
To determine whether any sale or marketing of your invention would likely result in legal action against you for patent infringement.
A patent search conducted only in the Canadian Patent Office will tell you something about what types of inventions have been previously registered there. Doing this, you are attempting to locate any patents which may be relevant to you and to your invention. This may affect whether or not you would be successful in securing a patent.
The second reason for doing the patent search is to learn whether any patents previously granted are similar to your invention, and whether those patents are have expired or not. If any relevant patent has not expired, then you risk being sued for patent infringement if you were to manufacture or sell the product or use the process which has been protected by that patent or patents.
Once the patent search has been completed, you will receive an opinion as to whether your invention could likely be protected by a patent application, and what types of difficulties you would expect to encounter during the course of the application. Based on the search results, you would then decide whether to proceed with the patent application. You would also decide which countries have markets large enough to make a patent application worthwhile.
A patent application in the United States commonly takes between 1-2 years to complete, while a patent application in Canada will often take 2-3 years. Costs of securing patent protection in foreign countries can vary widely. They depend on costs of translation of your patent application into the foreign language, as well as the custom of the country in which you are attempting to obtain patent protection. Filing for patent protection in such countries as Japan and China can be particularly costly, primarily due to the translation costs.