Ask Mike: How to get a patent
Hey Guys,
The best inventions are the simple ones. Or at least the ones that appear to be simple, the ones that make you think, “Why didn’t I think of that?” So, let’s say you come up with an awesome invention that will make you a zillion dollars. You’re gonna have to patent it, right? How in the heck do you do that? Here’s the scoop.
I did quick Yahoo! Search on “how to get a patent” and was immediately greeted with a slew of results. The first result comes from the good ol’ United States government’s patent and trademark office. The site gives would-be Thomas Edisons all the information they need to protect their million dollar ideas.
But before you send in your application, you may want to learn what a patent is. Generally speaking, a patent gives the holder the right to “exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling” the invention. A patent doesn’t give the holder the right to create anything; instead it denies others the right to copy the invention for a certain amount of time.
Patents are often confused with trademarks and copyrights, but the three are actually quite different. Patents are usually issued for physical inventions or ideas. A trademark, meanwhile, “is a word, name, symbol, or device that is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others.” Think: Nike’s “swoosh.” Unlike a patent, a trademark doesn’t prevent another company from making a similar product.
Finally, there are copyrights. There are commonly seen on music, books, and games. In the Patent Office’s words: “Copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of ‘original works of authorship’ including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, both published and unpublished.” This is what prevents everyone in the world from publishing their own copies of Harry Potter books.
Still want to patent an invention? Here’s a link to all the forms you’ll need. But keep in mind, the process can be complicated. If you’re serious about it, you may want to consult with lawyer who specializes in this sort of thing.
Got your own opinion on the greatest invention of all time? If you ask me, it’s pretty hard to top the wheel, but I think indoor plumbing might be a close second. Third place: the hot shower.
Thanks for reading,
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Getting a patent can be a difficult process. In addition, only about 5% of all patents actually granted turn out to be economically viable.
I’ve been creating new idea’s since 1993
Been to the patent library within the central library for months doing research(patent search
on;y to conclude my idea is novel
now I need backers/ partners as I will never have the money that patent attorney ask for to pursue a US patent (on social welfare for 18 years)
I’m not a college grad Actually I’m a TBI survivor
where do I go from here?
Dylan, your a smart guy but, I know everything starts from nothing and in this world something only comes from hard work and absolute dedication.
If you dont know how to create work, then go out and start with a Job working and saving up to fund the smallest of your creations.
Mike, the patent system is broken. A patent only protects your invention if you have the money to prosecute infringement and defend your patent. This favors the large corporation with a staff of lawyers eager to file suits. Not so much the small entrepreneur with limited resources.
A long time ago I concluded that the only realistic protection for the “little guy” is not a patent but a combination of trade secret and short time to market. Get the product to the public, make some money, and then move on before the sharks arrive.
A truly game changing idea will likely be stolen, even if patented. Sharp lawyers will find a way to sidestep your claims, modify your invention and file for a patent in the name of their client, or claim “prior art” to invalidate your patent. It’s entirely up to the patent owner to defend their patent against any and all infringement.
Look at the intermittent windshield wiper and the button on a socket wrench handle that releases the socket wrench. Who is making money off these two inventions? You can make book it isn’t the original inventor. It can take decades to recover damages from infringement, even if you eventually prove your case in court. In the meantime the infringer profits until advancing technology renders the invention obsolete or the patent expires.
The idea of patents as a means to promote advances in technology, by allowing an inventor exclusive rights for a fixed period of time, in exchange for full and public disclosure of their invention, was good enough to make it into the Constitution of the United States or America. It is a good idea. But to be effective, not only must the government grant patents, it must also prosecute, at government expense, any patent infringment. Perhaps if this were “the law of the land” there would be fewer “junk” patents issued as well as fewer patent infringements.
I’m a patent examiner. Many patent applications are abandoned even before they are examined. Two of three are abandoned after the first report from an examiner. Patent office fees are not high but if you use attorneys and go for patents in several countries you can kiss several hundred thousand dollars goodbye. If you do not use an attorney your specification is likely to be poorly drafted and the claims are likely to be rejected by examiners as they will not comply with patent law. Even if they are not rejected your inexperience in this will result in them being almost useless in protecting your invention. There is only a small amount of help that examiners can give you as they are forbidden by law from assisting you in any substantial way. Further, they do not have the time.
Search before you make applications. Even the most highly technical inventions usually have been beaten to the patent offices by something almost identical, or by a couple of different ones that separately disclose all the features of your invention. That can mean your invention has “no inventive step” or is “obvious to a person skilled in the art”. Things that are utterly new are like hen’s teeth. After 19 years reading thousands of applications I have seen perhaps two that were really new.
There is no point in applying for a patent on anything that anyone can cook up in kitchen or garage.
Remember, a patent is a licence to sue or be sued.
Yahoo has a search feature?
Also note, of course, that patent processes vary from country to country. For the 95% of people that US patents don’t apply to, check with the patent office or equivalent government body in your area as to the correct forms to fill out and any legal requirements.
It may also assist to contact a local inventors’ group, who may have some information on the process from the perspective of those who have already gone through it.
I went to see someone about an idea I had and was told just to produce them myself, because anyone can change 1 thing and it makes a product theirs. also 1 year later a popular toy manufacture came out with the same thing. I don’t know how true that was if at all. The whole process is confusing to me So get an attorney before you talk to anyone else about your idea. I have never tried again. I keep my ideas to myself now. I resently was told that selling a reproduction cookie jar was against the law, even if I state it is a reproduction, come on where does it stop? Get an attorney first thing! Good luck!
The response from the patent office from my first patent submission was (what I later determined to be standard) a rejection. I read the reason for the rejection and, grudgingly, had to agree with their assessment. I called the patent attorney and thanked him for his help and wished us both, “better luck next time.” The pause at the other end of the phone was uncharacteristic and he finally replied, “This rejection is not really a rejection. It is a roadmap of what we need to change to get the patent approved.”
This is when I realized that patent law makes absolutely no logical sense. It has nothing to do with the quality or applicability of the idea. It is purely a legal enterprise. When, a couple of months later, I was granted that first patent I further realized that anyone trying to obtain a patent on their own was simply wasting their time. A patent attorney is not just valuable in the process, he or she is absolutely critical.
The change to my patent application from the one that was rejected to the one that was accepted was fewer than 10 words.
For those of you who want to protect an idea “on the cheap” while you try to peddle or develop it, try a “Provisional Patent”. It is simply a patent disclosure that you file with the patent office that serves as a temporal marker laying claim to when you came up with the idea. You have one year to file for a full patent on that idea and your rights to it will remain as they were when it the provisional filed. Such a filing can be successfully made on your own at a very minimal cost.
Good luck!
I have developed new commercially-viable products for close to 20 years. Here’s the skinny on patents, a patent gives you the right to “sue” someone else who may have infringed on your patent. #1. You think it’s expensive to get a patent, wait until you see how much it will cost you in time and money (legal fees) proving your patent was infringed upon. #2. It is extremely easy to reverse engineer any product to avoid infringing on someone’s patent. #3. Unless you can successfully market your product, (here’s where ALL your time & money is going to go) the pretty little piece of paper that you can frame and mount on your wall ie; your patent will collect dust like millions of others.
Here’s a secret; got a great idea? The way to make money with it is to be the first kid on the block to get it in the marketplace. Once you develop strong relationships with vendors, manufacturers, retailers, etc, no matter what other products, patented or not, come down the line that closely mimics yours, the above companies will not be easily swayed to give up the trusted relationship that they have with you and replace your product with someone elses!
That’s how you really make money with your invention!
There are other tips & tricks you can use to keep potential competitors at bay, but that can be addressed at another time.
well poems and literature can be patented too, right? i have a really awesome children’s rhyme poem, and it is so good, my english teacher thought i cheated when i handed it in for class. but no, and someone told me i should patent it.
so what really are the steps to doing this?
especialy for a 14 year old..?
I’ve worked in the Intellectual Property world for a few years now, and one thing that new inventors should also consider is the filing costs. If you can a afford an attorney, they will save you time and effort. However, I once asked one of my attorneys what a base line payment would be… $1000 he said, but this would cover him writing the patent to spec, putting together the drawings, filing the patent with the USPTO, the assignment of ownership, as well as a few incidentals. This is reason so many BUSINESSES are in the patent business, not individuals.
You really don’t need a patent at frist, all you need is to get a copywright frist. That makes the idea yours.This what I do frist them maybe I can later try to go for a patent. I can then produce my product quicker and no one can copy it. Good Luck!
I am one of the lucky ones that can actually do something usefull. I actually made something, decided not to name it, but I use it quite a bit at work, All it is is a stick that I put in some clamps at the end with a small scoop that can pick up golf tees, rubber beeds from carpets, basically anything that is a pain to pick up when you have to bend over all day. A co-worker actually made it as he is a certified welder but I came up with the idea, he just made the physical version instead of the mental version
Hi Mike, well i must commend you on this one, you are simply awesome. I’ll really like u to teach me more stuffs on how to do mobile advert. Thanks
“Mike”, this is too complicated of a question for you to attempt to answer. Basically you regurgitated definitions. Want an attorney to do the job for you? Do you have $300 an hour to pay him? If you are a major company like Nike you have the money to do this. The common person is better off hiring an attorney to help sell the idea to a company like Nike and let them get the patent. Wonder how many people are going to download the forms and attempt this themselves. Hilarious.
Applied to software pattents, it can stiffle innovation. Imagine developing a new software and not be able to sell it without paying some other Company for each unit you sell, because they bought the patent and now own it.
If someone is looking for a backer and doesn’t know where to go, try to find a venture capitalist to invest in your idea. There are also companies out there that will do the patent work for you for a % of any future profits.
I thought this said “how to pregnant” at first lmao
as a casual inventor, i have been thru the ups and downs of the patent process. i have learned that it is not so hard to file. you can do it yourself, attorneys are not required. i saved thousands of dollars by not using an attorney. write a thorough description of the item’s function and inner workings and include detailed drawings or photos. you can upload it online or mail it to the patent office. its useless to spend hundreds of dollars on a regular basis to the patent office for protection since any invention can be copied by another person and they can get away with it by simply changing a small function on the item. i would skip the traditional patent and get the ‘provisional patent” for $100. it is good for 1 year and allows you to put ‘patent ending’ on your item. during this year you can shop it around to various manufacturers. there is a program on PBS called ‘everyday edisons’. they are a legitimate invention company that helps inventors. they get your ideas in front of major companies who you can’t approach personally. their website is http://www.edisonnation.com/
i meant ‘patent Pending’ not ‘ending’ :^)
okay the prices have gone up since i last filed, if you file for a Provisional application as a ‘small entity’ (meaning you are not a corporation but an individual) then the fee is $110. and its still very simple. it just takes filling out the form that has all your contact info on it (http://www.uspto.gov/web/forms/sb0016.pdf) and another paper with the description of your invention. a lengthy patent search is not required. just go on the internet and search for your product, say you invented a dog toy that is bacteria resistant, just type those words and you’ll see if its already there. but don’t lose heart, everything has already been invented in some form, but people still file patents anyway by changing little things. just go to patent search (http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html) and type in ‘sewing needle’ or ‘pacifier’ or anything common. there are so many results, but yours might be better somehow so go for it.
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/qs/ope/fee2009september15.htm#patapp
Is that actually true……5%
We have 3 things we want to patent, when I started looking for examples a 20 page submission was the smallest one I could find! Extremely complicated, expensive, and no guarantee you’ll make a nickel. Do the search as mentioned above before you even bother, I found 3 versions of one of our ideas and we wouldn’t have been approved, even though it’s never made it to the market place in any way, shape or form.
I know the man that patented the telescoping toilet paper holder. (how many do you have in your house?) Put both his children thru college.
Quick note: ideas, or concepts, can’t be patented, only inventions can.
Hey I came up with an idea for car compaines, but i don’t have the technoligy to create and test it, would i be able to patent my idea and sell it or something like that?
I hold about 70 patents, both U.S. and international. I have actually gone to patent court and that cost my company about $1 million dollars to defend against a blatant infringer. It is clear that a patent only gives an individual the right to make a complete fool of himself, spend a lot of money, and waste a huge amount of time when holding a U.S. Patent today. 50% of the patents in the United States are held by Japanese. They simply buy the technology they want and let Americans innovate them.
The very best way to put any product on the market is simply to be the first, be the best, and make the price reasonable. Spend your time doing that and you will be much farther ahead. Competition will increase your sales far more than isolating technology and spending a fortune and years wasting huge amounts of time. Ultimately, the market will decide and if you do a good job at that, you will win big.
good luck to you
When I clicked on ‘How to get a patent’, I thought it would be more than just telling me it was too confusing to explain on here.
I agree with the the poster that asked about Yahoo’s search feature. I wonder how I can find it? I thought Yahoo was just a place for crazy looking flash banner ads that floated across the screen. I only come to Yahoo to be entertained by the “reall cool” advertising. Sorta like TiVo in reverse. I mean, why else would I come to the internet? To possibly become better informed?
Most of the comments trying to convince that not using patent lawyer to patent your idea is ludicrous are all made by struggling patent lawyers. Don’t believe what they say. All patent lawyers are nothing but greedy scums.
omg great article
So….. basically don’t waste your time or money with patents or patent lawyers! In this age of online trade and virtual marketplaces, they’re a sorely outdated government service… just like the post office. You can find copycat products of anything on the internet and they usually ship from low-cost distributors in countries that don’t have to follow U.S. laws.
This is a good site. I am developing a product and just found a similar invention that was patented in 1894. Will that be a factor in getting a provisional patent today?
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