Patents

Patents excludes:

• Discoveries (natural laws, plants, animals, etc.)

Patents must be for something:

• Novel (ie different that prior work)

Patents can be:

• Design Patents, for how things are put together (“ornamental design, configuration, improved decorative appearance, or shape of an invention”), lasting 14 years, or
• Utility Patents, for new functionality/usefulness, lasting 20 years.

The purpose of patents is to:

• Reward Genius ('genus'/creation) by creating limited duration exclusive rights to market (i.e. monopolies) to compensate for the large upfront investment of time and resources.
• Disseminated information to others, to reuse as conceptual building blocks, once the monopoly has expired.

The process of getting a patent is:

• Search the database for prior work (starting with the US database):
• using a Patent Agent to do the search more deeply
• Using a Patent Attorney to craft an Application's description and clauses
• File a Provisional Utility Patent Application (provides a year to file a Utility Patent Application)
• File a a Non-Provisional Utility (or Design) Patent Application within the year
• At which point can then legally use “Patent Pending”
• If it passes (can be 24 months of waiting), you'll receive a Notice of Allowance
• At which point you pay the Patent Fee (granted for 20 years if paying regular Maintenance Fees at 3.5, 7.5 and 11.5 years into the patent).
• Consider an International Patent Application (117 countries)
• Present at trade shows, contact groups you think would be interested, etc.

Costs to consider:

• Filing a US patent is not terribly expensive (<1000 for USA only).
• Filling a US maintenance fees is more (3500 – which is approximately 1000/year).
• Filing an international fee is obviously much more expensive (cost unknown).
• What costs (20K or more just for the application) is using a lawyer to make an application that has a chance of being successful, and b) dependable, achieved by correctly defining clauses that describe its uniqueness, function, and assembly.
  • You can try it yourself to save on the cash – but you may find that your application gets rejected due to overlap with prior ideas you did not discover, and b) your claim is to vague to be defended against a copycat.