TABLE OF CONTENTS Just because a patent has been granted does not mean it is safe from attack by competitor companies. A patent can be the subject of legal action at any time in its life, and objections can be raised by others even before a patent has been granted.
As soon as a patent application is published 18 months after the priority date, any competitor or other interested party has access to it and to the search report. Its relevance to a competitor's business can be evaluated. Before the application proceeds to grant, anyone can write to the patent office arguing that a patent should not be granted, giving reasons. For example, this could be done if the competitor knows about a publication not included in the search report which provides grounds for arguing that the invention is not new or is obvious. The interested party can do nothing more than make observations which the examiner will take into account during the examination process; it is not an interactive process.
After a patent has been granted in the UK, anyone has the right to challenge it on the same grounds that could have been raised by the examiner. As with an objection to a patent application, the most likely basis will be knowledge of a publication prior to the priority date which was not included in the search report...
