Why to Get a Patent Lawyer

An inventor may have an idea, but the process of getting the idea patented takes quite a bit of work. He or she must determine if the idea has been thought of already, must produce a convincing argument that it’s an original creation and must be ready to classify the invention based on US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) regulations. An inventor may be turned off to the idea of getting a patent for this reason. Nevertheless, going through with developing the invention and marketing it could lead to others reproducing the idea and the original inventor losing revenue. A patent protects that from happening.

In order to avoid having to navigate through complicated patent laws and regulations, it may be beneficial to hire a patent attorney to help out. A patent attorney is very knowledgeable about patent law and is certified to specifically work on patents by the USPTO. In addition, in a lot of cases, patent attorneys have backgrounds in science and engineering, so they know quite a bit about inventions in both fields. In addition, they can handle matters beyond patents for the inventor, including copyrights they may need for information about their product, or trademarks for the business that could be formed from the invention.

Choosing a patent lawyer may be difficult. There are over 28,000 patent attorneys and about 9,000 patent agents in the United States today. Many specialize in particular types of patents, whether they happen to be for machinery, software, pharmaceuticals or even for organisms. Many inventors use the internet to search for the right patent lawyer. The USPTO has a search engine that will let the inventor find patent lawyers that are geographically closest to them, and websites like Findlaw contain directories of patent lawyers and law firms to browse through. Be sure to research the lawyer by asking them how many cases they’ve taken on, what their specialty is, what services they can provide, etc. In addition, if you know people who are in an industry that produces similar products to your invention, you may want to consult with them to find a good attorney.

Usually the services a patent lawyer provides are concrete. They know the USPTO very well and work with them on a regular basis. They will be able to use contacts in the USPTO to expedite the patent filing process. They will be able to assist you with filling out the application so that there aren’t mistakes. They will be able to take your idea and write it up into a description that follows the rules of the USPTO. They will clarify just how to construct drawings of your creation so that they are clear and properly show what your creation can do. They will warn you what to expect once the patent has been filed. Finally, they will be able to hold your hand once the patent has either been accepted or rejected.

Yes, patent lawyers are not inexpensive. Their fees vary, but usually they fall in the $5,000-$10,000 range. However, if you decide not to get a patent lawyer, there are many opportunities for the inventor to make a mistake. Their patent may become delayed or rejected because the application was not in its best form. Investment in a patent attorney is very likely to be returned in the long run.

About Invention Company Scams

Throughout history, the spread of literacy and the advent of engineering made intellectual discovery become a significantly defined part of reality. Engineering is the root of all invention, and inventors first came along when scientific discoveries were published and printed throughout the world. At first, there weren’t many early inventors. Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and Leonardo da Vinci were considered invention pioneers. However, now that the world has gotten metaphorically smaller and knowledge about the world has become larger, inventors have become much more common than they were even 100 years ago.

Even though invention has been a popular activity, about only ten percent of patentable inventions are marketed successfully. In fact, if you are considering going down the road to get a patent, you may be turned off by the idea that your invention may never be widely used. Nowadays, though, you can find an expert at just about anything by just searching for it. If you do search for someone who can help your invention become popular, you’ll likely fall upon a large list of invention companies. Invention companies claim to help your invention get off the ground. However, very often, these invention companies are only interested in getting paid money that’s not owed to them.

Usually these companies are very attractive at first. They provide colorful brochures describing what it is that they can do for you, the inventor. They list patents that they had worked on and have shown success. They offer an invention kit – which contains a summary of the services that they will offer to you – and a place where they can be reached. If you contact them with a general idea about what your invention is, they will be very quick about getting back to you with their invention marketing plan.

This is the first point in which you could get scammed. They will compliment your invention, and claim that it has enormous potential to bring in large amounts of revenue. They’ll state that they’ll help you with the patent application, which, to many new inventors, can take a load of stress off their hands. They’ll say that they will run a search for patents that are similar to yours, and will make sure that your invention will be suitable to get a patent. In order to do this, they’ll ask you to pay a fee which is usually in the hundreds of dollars. If an inventor sends in the money, it’s very likely they won’t see it again.

Some inventor marketing companies will actually do a patent search for you. However, the search will be monumentally smaller than what a patent lawyer or a respected patent search firm could accomplish for you. The company will send back to you their search results, which are usually trumped by more marketing material that claims that your invention will go far when it’s taken into their hands. They’ll ask for more money – usually around $10,000 – to file a patent application, help with licensing, and market the invention using brochures and displays at trade shows. In addition to the up-front fee, the invention marketing company will indicate that they’ll require royalty fees in the ballpark of 10-15%.

When they get paid the fee, what they will really do is list your invention on a website or in a database. They may display it at trade shows, but the trade shows will be few and far between. They will, however, send you updates about its success, and in some cases, they may spin the success to sound better than it is. In this case, they may go on to say that the invention is so good that they expect it to make an exorbitant amount of money, and they’ll need a down payment on their royalties so that they can properly market it. This down payment can also be into the many thousands of dollars, and you won’t see any return on your investment.

The web is an excellent place to check up on inventor marketing companies to see if they are scams. It’s always important to determine just how many customers they’ve had and to get customer feedback. The Better Business Bureau also has quite a bit of resources available to the inventor looking to avoid scams.

How the PCT Can Help an Inventor

The United States is considered the melting pot of the world. Different upbringings, races, classes and ethnicities define what the United States is as a society. The innovation that can be found in such a diverse people as the United States means that their creations are equally as widespread. As a result, Americans invent hundreds of thousands of new things every year, inventions that are useful worldwide. The strides in the field of communication have made the global economy accessible to anyone who wishes to market a product. However, the complexity of inventions and the nearly infinite marketplace can make an entrepreneur wary about introducing a new product. He or she can create a new item and file for a patent in his or her home country, but what will guarantee that someone on the other side of the world hasn’t already patented the idea? Well, in 1970, a conference in Washington was held to address that problem. The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) stemmed from the conference and was brought into force on January 21, 1978. To date, 139 countries have agreed to abide by the treaty.

The PCT procedure, also known as the international procedure, is a method by which an inventor can obtain intellectual property protection for a patent in a number of countries. In order for your patent to be examined by the international procedure, you must fill out a patent application. The PCT application is slightly different from the patent application in your home country, and is available through the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva. You will need to indicate which countries you would like to have your patent application submitted for. Once you’ve filled the application out and submitted it, your application will be put through two phases, the national phase and the international phase. The international phase is the period in which the application is filed through your home country’s patent office. The national phase follows the international phase, and constitutes the period that the application is forwarded on to the patent offices in the countries that you indicated you wanted intellectual property protection from.

There are certain rules about filing a PCT application. First of all, you must file the application once and in your home country only. The PCT application must be filed in the same language that was used in your regular patent application. You must also pay a fee for each country that you’d like to review the application, up to five countries.

Once your application is submitted, an International Searching Authority is assigned to the PCT application to determine if prior-art exists that matches the invention. The authority will write an opinion during the international phase about the patentability of your invention and whether it would be worth entering the national phase in the countries that were specified on the application. The national phase will require an investment from the inventor in order to cover filing fees in each country and translation fees if applicable.

An inventor has the option to exercise the PCT application up to 31 months following the filing date of the initial national patent application. This will leave the inventor extra time to obtain a national patent and observe what the manufacture of the new product will bring. If word spreads overseas and generates interest in the product, then it may be ideal for the inventor to submit a PCT application.

Get a Patent without Using a Lawyer

For the average inventor, getting the willpower and drive to patent and manufacture an invention can be a difficult process. There are many obstacles that can frighten the innovator and may cause he or she to put a device, process or concoction somewhere it collects metaphorical dust. It’s no secret that becoming a successful inventor is as challenging – if not more than – as starting your own business. In fact, you may find that you have to start your own business to promote the product. Therefore, you’ll need to have a large monetary base to get your product out.

One place that commands a significant amount of money is the field of patent law. To the novice inventor, the idea of going through the patent application process – including paying the non-refundable fees, obtaining the correct terminology, following the correct rules and making sure that the invention hasn’t been reproduced – can be extremely daunting. Patent lawyers can often help out with this process monumentally. Patent lawyers are available all over the world and can be considered a tremendous investment for the inventor who has deep pockets. However, you may have the next revolutionary machine and not a lot of money to spend to make sure no one else claim it’s theirs. What can you do? The following is a set of steps you can take to avoid having to shell out $5,000 and up for a patent lawyer.

First: Can your invention be protected?

You know what your invention can do. You know how it is similar or different to the products you have seen marketed every day. However, you must be sure that a) it isn’t too close in functionality to another invention and b) that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) can legitimately understand why it’s a unique product. In order to do this, you’ll need to do two things. First of all, run a search through the USPTO database to see if other inventions that are closely like yours exist. List how they’re similar and how they’re different. Be sure that when you fill out your patent application, you compare and contrast these inventions to your own and be clear about why yours fills a niche that the others do not. Secondly, learn what different classifications of inventions exist for the USPTO. This will help you fit your invention into a place where regulations exist.

Second: Is your invention modern?

When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, it was revolutionary and it made him a household name. Today, if you were to go to the patent office with a new version of a light bulb that did not improve on his original invention, you may be shot down. Yes, you may have a novel idea, but if it couldn’t be found useful when compared to similar products that exist today, but if the USPTO doesn’t find it modern, then it may reject your application to patent it.

Third: Can your invention be commercialized?

You can pretty much tell what a marketable invention is by watching mail order commercials. Things like towels that hold ten times their weight and high-volume vegetable slicers are quick and easy sellers, whose patents were well-earned. If you have an invention you’re proud of, but you’re not sure if it will sell, it may be best to do a little market research. The best place to start with this research is to find what’s called ‘prior art’, which include inventions that are close to yours which you may have improved upon. If your invention doesn’t have enough appeal so that it could potentially grab market share from prior art, then it probably won’t get a patent.

Fourth: Can you fill out the paperwork?

In order to have a patent approved, you must be able to fill out a patent application successfully. This application will require quite a bit of information, including descriptions of the functionality of your invention, why it should be given a patent, and quality drawings of the invention and how it works. Instructions about how to fill out patent applications are widely available in libraries and on the web, so become familiar with USPTO terminology and rules before trying to fill the application out.

Although it can be tough when you first become an inventor to get your product patented, it’s a wonderful experience. Avoid paying for a lawyer and pave your own way to a patent!

How to Conduct Market Research

Every inventor interested in patenting their creation is curious about whether their idea has been developed before. Another question that may roll around in their head is “will the public really want to use my creation?” To answer these two important questions, the inventor must conduct market research.

Market research, to someone who is untrained in marketing, may sound tedious and difficult to do. Nevertheless, just about any one has the faculties to do market research. The first step in doing your research is to ask many questions about what you’re looking to find. This brainstorming process will get you geared up to delve through many sources to answer the questions.

Market research is best done in phases. The first phase is focused on obtaining information. At this point, it’s best that you sit down in front of a computer and surf the web, or visit your library to review periodicals and trade journals related to your invention. The bites of information that should be most important to you are what your idea could be sold for and at what volume it should be manufactured at. When you decide to sell it, these numbers will give you a good estimation about how to sell it.

Other important pieces of information include who your target audience will be, where they live, how your advertising will reach them, what time period will they buy the item, and how many they’d be in the market to purchase. These tidbits of knowledge sometimes do turn up for free by market research firms, which can be doubly valuable to you. If a market research firm isn’t involved, you can draw your own conclusions, which is far, far better than going about selling your product without any market knowledge at all.

Once you’ve gathered information about similar products to yours, you must consider the trends of the overall marketplace. If you plan to sell during a speculated recession, you should expect not to get much return on your investment. If a cure for diabetes has recently been discovered, then your sugar-free treat invention probably won’t sell as well as you’d like. It’s very difficult to predict what the market trends will be like during the early stages of an invention’s life, but it’s useful to get idea of general feel of the market at first and alter any expectations you may have as the market morphs.

Another part of market trend measurement is the evaluation of competitor success. The average corporation today is in a constant state of change. If a competitor of yours has shown steady growth in their revenue, the trend could be a good sign that selling a similar product will result in equally high profits. If the competitor has shown a decline in profits, then it’s up to you to find out why. It could easily mean that the popularity of their product has gone downhill for a very good reason, one that may affect the sale of your product.

Market research may be difficult if your invention is not like any others that exist out there. Still, you want to do research to ensure that it hasn’t been patented before and didn’t sell. Again, trade journals and periodicals are the best place to evaluate this. It may be best to visit a college library that has a good journal selection to explore to get this information, because buying articles online can be very expensive. Nevertheless, there is always a vast amount of free information available on the web to peruse through. Be sure to know your favorite search engine and use it!

Avoiding Patent Reproduction

First time inventors often have a lot of questions that need answering. “What paperwork do I need to file?” “Should I get a patent lawyer?” “How much money will I need to sell my product?” “How do I determine if my invention already exists?”

All of these are legitimate questions. However, before you pursue getting a patent, arguably the most important question is the latter: “How do I determine if my invention already exists?” Luckily, in the present, there are a number of ways to make sure you haven’t reproduced someone else’s patented creation. Whether you’re an independent inventor or are in charge of making sure that your company’s many new technologies are recognized by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), you can use similar methods to determine if you could be making a copycat product. In addition, if you’ve made a career out of inventing, there are many sources available to stay on top of recent patents filed so you know what trends and technologies are fashionable and marketable.

The first place to look for filed patents is in online databases. The advent of the internet has brought with it a number of places online where information about patents that are currently in filing process or have been granted can be obtained. Such websites as Patentmonkey, Freepatentsonline, Wikipatents, or espacenet contain extensive databases of patents filed by many sources. While these websites are arguably good quality, they don’t always update recent patent activity. If a patent has been bought or sold, or if patents have been based upon prior creations, it’s likely that sort of information has not been updated in the databases, and when you go to file a patent, you may come across some surprises.

One way to ward off these unexpected obstacles is to expand your search. You could, for example, run a patent search on a number of these websites to see if there are any changes to the patents listed in one database and not the other. You could also compare your results to the information that the USPTO database has, which is also accessible online. Nevertheless, if a patent has been filed via a PCT – an international patent application – you may need to expand your search.

You can start by looking at court cases in the United States. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit offers a website where you can search for cases related to patents. The information available is comprehensive and is kept very much up to date. Another great national website is the Kuester Law Technology Law Resource website. This center for intellectual property includes news about patenting, intellectual property lawmaking, and pertinent inventions that could be of interest to you as an inventor.

If you’re more interested in obtaining an international patent, there are also a number of places you can check for prior creations. One is the Hieros Gamos website, which contains a well-populated international directory of lawyers, legal jobs, court cases, articles and any other legal-related information one may need. This website is quite thorough, and it may be difficult to navigate at first, but some may find that this is the best one-stop-shop on the web for patent review. If you find Hieros Gamos to be too thorough, you can run a search through the World Intellectual Property Association. Unlike Hieros Gamos, this website is targeted for those who are only interested in the patenting process.

You can also go to patenting websites of other countries. China, Canada, Australia, even the European Union have their own patent databases to review. If you choose to file an international patent, the searches will be done regardless of this process, and they can take up to sixteen months to complete. Therefore, although doing the searches on your own through a number of web portals may take some time, it’ll save quite a bit of time if your invention has already been patented.

Why to Try Your Hand at Inventing

How many times have you actually paid attention to all the things that surround you? Take your eyes away from the computer for a moment and take a good look at all the items that you can see from your chair. You’ll see a computer mouse. You’ll see a lamp, containing a light bulb. You’ll see a plastic bottle with a cap that contains a label and some soda. All of the things around you are monumentally more complicated than they appear. The objects did not appear out of thin air. A person or team of people had to think about the object, had to draw out a plan to create the object, and had to find a way to manufacture it.

Those people are called inventors. In history class, you’ve probably heard your teacher or professor ramble on about the historical importance of invention and they may have touched on some of the most legendary inventions ever developed. In doing this, they didn’t communicate just how important inventors are to modern society. Think about how many people were involved with the creation of that bottle of soda. Hard to fathom, isn’t it? Each part, when it was first developed, was probably vastly different from what it is now. Bottle caps were initially not made out of plastic. Soda recipes were probably revised many times before the drink that you’re sipping on became a finished product. Even the earring or earrings you may be wearing are the result of many human revisions so that their posts don’t hurt your ears.

Inventing something is one of today’s greatest miracles, and to be an inventor may be easier than you think. You could be lucky enough to have a science or engineering background and a keen eye for things that need to be improved upon. If that’s the case, you’ve probably already considered becoming an inventor, or have invented something, and hopefully have it patented. Chances are, though, that you’re not that person. You could be a housewife who spends most of her time at home taking care of the kids. You could be a trades worker who spends many hours in front of a machine doing quality inspections. Or maybe you’re a college student with a vast body of knowledge but very little idea what you want to do when you ‘grow up’. You could fall into virtually any category and successfully patent something that sells like wildfire. All you need is an idea, some passion and a plan. Most people have a subject or two they can profess they’re an expert on, and in many cases, they have opinions about how their experience with it could be improved. The opinions are the seeds that can grow you into a patent-holding inventor.

You may find the process of getting a patent and marketing a novel product difficult to understand. However, you may be comforted to know that the US Patent and Trademark Office – the regulatory center of intellectual property in the United States – approves nearly half of the patent applications they receive every year. That’s because the people who submit the applications are passionate about the product they invented and are ready to effectively prove that their creation is special. In your life, have you ever had to fight for something that you sincerely believed in? Well, the practice of inventing and patenting will tap the energy source you used to fight, and will exercise it so that you become a stronger person. Look at the invention process as a way to obtain personal growth instead of a nuisance. And remember, you aren’t alone: there are plenty of resources available to the aspiring inventor. You might just fall in love with wearing shoes like Thomas Edison once wore.