1. Protect the secrecy of your idea to guarantee the novelty of your invention

Patent or secret? At the idea stage, and even when an idea is first formalized, the answer is simple: maintaining confidentiality is essential!

In fact, if your idea needs to remain secret for strategic, marketing or legal reasons (e.g. non-patentability), a confidentiality policy is a no-brainer.

However, in the same way, if this idea is to be the subject of a patent application as well as a design patent, its validity will depend on its novelty. This novelty is liable to be destroyed, not only by third parties who may have become aware of it, but also by the applicant who discloses his invention before it is filed: this is known as self-disclosure.

Regardless of the type of protection chosen, it is imperative to preserve confidentiality right from the research stage, which is likely to result in a creation....