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Truths Inventors Need To Know

Monday, April 19, 2010 10:25 am

The listing of invention related truths is offered here as an overview for inventors in order to dispel misconceptions and to provide a background for further study. Although many of the truths are universal, the list here is directed to United States patents. Consider each item below as a starting point.

PATENT TRUTHS:
Patents, along with Copyrights and Trademarks, are generally known as “Intellectual Property” rights that are granted by the government.

An invention or discovery must be new, useful, and non-obvious to be patentable.

Only an individual or group of individuals, never a business entity, can be granted a patent.

Companies acquire patent rights from the individual(s) by means of a legal document called an assignment.

A patent is a monopoly granted by the government to make and use the invention for a limited time.

Patents have expiration dates and cannot be renewed.

After a patent term expires, it goes into the public domain where anyone can use the patent for free.

On rare occasions, the government will extend the patent term if the pending period was unusually long.

Presently, there are 146 countries that issue patents.

There is no international patent.

Inventors wanting patent protection in foreign countries can file in selected countries, or alternatively become patent pending throughout most of the world by filing a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application.

Non-Provisional Patents include Utility, Design and Plant.

Utility Patents are for an article of manufacture, machine, process, chemical composition, and computer software. The term is 20 years from filing.

Design Patents protect either an industrial or an ornamental design. Term of a Design Patent is 14 years after issuance.

Plant Patents are for asexually reproduced varieties of plant material including flora, fauna, and hybrids of fruits, vegetables and tubers. The Plant Patent term is 20 years from filing.

A Provisional Patent is a simplified filing that maintains an early recorded date for a maximum of 1 year unless continued into a Utility application.

Patent Pending is a notice used to indicate that a patent application has been filed. The pending process is usually 2 or more years, except Design applications are around a year.

There is no such thing as a “Poor Man’s Patent.”

Depending upon how the statistics are calculated, either about 8%, or less than 5%, of all issued patents get onto the market.

Only a registered Patent Attorney or Patent Agent, who has passed the Federal Patent Bar, is licensed to legally help inventors prepare, file and prosecute a patent application or to provide an Opinion of Patentability. A General Practice Attorney, or any unlicensed individual, can not legally offer patent advice or prepare an application.

Virtually every patent application is rejected at first by the Patent Examiner. These rejections are called Office Actions and are almost never final.

A prosecution strategy for dealing with an expected Office Action should be developed before filing the patent application, even all the way back to the preparation of a Provisional filing.

An inventor forfeits his/her patent rights if the invention is publicly known, or is offered for sale, more than a year before the filing of a patent application.

Patent applications are made public by the Patent Office 18 months after filing unless the application contains a “Non-Published” request. “Non-Published” requested applications won’t become public until the patent is issued.

After more than 25 years of working with inventors from all over North America, the patent truths offered here will allow a first time inventor to get started in the right direction.

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