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Inventions and patents.
freshmasterfresh
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
My uncle and I have been collaborating and we want to apply for some patents. The advertisements for inventor's toolkits and stuff they show on TV seem scammy, and there has to be good and bad ways to go about it. I'm going to start by reading some websites, but I'd reckon there exists a great wealth of information in these here waters.
freshmasterfresh on
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I worked for a couple of patent attorneys the summer before last, and often times people would come in after having talked to one of those companies like Invent-Tech, and they had to tell the person that the chance of actually getting a patent was pretty low because of that.
Also, don't try to do the whole thing yourself. It can get pretty confusing, and you're better off just paying a patent attorney to do it.
Wii: 5369-9438-3600-4256
Disclaimer: IANAL, but I have consulted on several patent litigation matters.
You are right to think that those TV ad things are scammy, because they are. Having a good patent attorney will be the difference between making an investment and wasting your money. Patents are expensive to obtain, and you will probably pay between $5,000 and $25,000 to obtain one. They have to be drafted very carefully, and you need a patent attorney to mediate between you and the patent office. It's a dance of sorts: you need to draft claims that will be broad enough to offer you a spectrum of protection, narrow enough that they don't get rejected by the patent office, and carefully enough that you will not get your patent thrown out after the fact for obviousness and prior art.
Then, there's a good chance that your initial submission will be rejected by the PTO for various reasons and you'll have to modify it. Any correspondence you have with the patent office during this process creates what's known as a prosecution history, and any statements you make may affect the scope of your patent later under the doctrine of file wrapper estoppel. Effectively, if you say something to the effect of "well, I don't intend my patent to cover X" in correspondence, you have given up protection for anything resembling X. Patent attorneys know all these pitfalls and will help you avoid them.
If you ever have to litigate your patent, the average costs for a big case are between $2 and $4 million per side. You can write claims such that it is easy to litigate your patent, or very very hard. If you have problematic claims, you will pay for it a thousand fold in attorney's fees later when you go to use your patent.
Because patents are expensive and complicated and time consuming, you need to ask yourself why you want a patent. There are generally a few reasons:
Anyway good luck and feel free to PM or just post with any specific questions; I can go into much more detail about the process and how claims are drafted and such if you want.
Well, you have the option of NOT paying them untold hundreds of dollars up front, and then paying untold thousands of dollars arguing with the patent examiner later because you didn't do a thorough patent and prior art search. Granted, patents are much more accessible (over the Web and for free, even!) now than they ever have been. However, I guarantee that you don't know how to read and interpret a patent, so even if you find something that you think might be related, you have no way of making an objective assessment of what it covers, let alone compare that to your own idea.
Furthermore, you have legal obligations to disclose known prior art to the Patent Office when filing. Any conversations you have with your patent attorney, e.g., about hypothetical prior art, are covered under attorney-client privilege and you can use this to protect yourself if necessary.