OT Anyone have a patent?

[Gobblerforge]

I would like to get a patent on an idea I have so I started looking at the patent offices web site. Oh....my..........gosh. Now I'm not an educated man and I don't do well with computers but I was overwhelmed in about 10 minutes. Is this really this complicated? Anyone here that has done this, any suggestions?
Gobbler

[Hobie]

The process is very technical, specific, and detail oriented. In the most basic terms you need a patent lawyer (there aren't that many). There will be a patent search to see if it has been done before. There will be technical papers to write, drawings perhaps, and so forth. My experience comes from working with my friend Mike on his patents. He spent quite a bit on it (I invested in this) and was told his was done rather cheaply (hard to pin that down). I think he had about $50K in the process.

I wish you the very best of luck.

[AJMD429]

Leave it to the federal government to stifle innovation; I'm sure the lawyers and big corporations don't mind throwing hurdles in front of the small businesses...

Kind of like other stuff - probably not the 'original intent' of the laws.

[Hobie]

I think the tremendous degree of specificity and attention to the language in the patent is necessary to protect the patentee. The HUGE number of patents that already exist makes the process more and more difficult.

This is one way that the government, by protecting innovators, has encouraged innovation and development. This makes it possible to make money from your ideas.

[rjohns94]

Actually, A temporary patent can be filed for $100. this is really quite easy to file and does not require a lawyer. The patent searches cost about $100-$200, depending on the item you are searching. Do that first. In the mean time, document your idea and do some drawings. Good hand drawings are fine. Then you can file the temp patent which protects your idea during the development phase. During that time, you can market your idea to others that might be interested and should they decide to take it to market, you can have the royalties. Full Patents can be very expensive and defending a patent can be even more so. I am named on 7 and they were just temporary patents. I turned the rights over to other companies for possible development because I cold not afford the full patent . So far, none have a full patent. Good luck on your quest.

[JimT]

rsjohns has it right. My Dad patented some of his reloading ideas/tools. It is a time-consuming expensive process that requires a lawyer. This is not a DYI project. And it is no guarantee that a person will ever make a dime from it.

[86er]

I have several patents and I have always used Franklin Forge. Jeff, the President of the co. is a hunter and shooter so he understands these items. He will explain the process, and give his ideas of whether it is necessary or even worth it.
If you have a good idea, you need to protect it and the only way is to know the ins and outs of intellectual property. I think their web-site is www.franlinforge.com

[crs]

Tim, one of cousins here in Dallas is an intellectual property attorney (which includes patents) and my son, Colin, and I recently met with him to discuss how to patent an idea. Tim recommended the approach of rsjohns as a means to protect the idea while it is further researched and developed.
The initial work, including the patent search, can be done by you on the Internet without hiring a lawyer.Tim said you can renew the provisionary patent every year and it will remain protected until such time that you abandon the idea or determine that you will go forward with filing the patent.
It was interesting that Tim told us that he hears daily of peoples wishes to patent their ideas and that most of them have no real value, but that the idea Colin explained was one of the best he had heard in years. Colin did the on line research and concluded that though the exact idea had not been patented, enough large companies had patents on related use of the same technology that he would end up in court and never get a clear patent. He just wrote it off as being a day late and a dollar short and moved on.
Good luck with your idea and have fun with it.

[adirondakjack]

rsjohns has it right. My Dad patented some of his reloading ideas/tools. It is a time-consuming expensive process that requires a lawyer. This is not a DYI project. And it is no guarantee that a person will ever make a dime from it.

Yep,

My dad got a patent on a bullet at one time. Anything to do with guns or bullets is very difficult to patent, requiring searches going back to the 16th century. His idea was among the RARE bullet patents approved (most really do plow up old ground), but took 7 years and $7000, and that was thirty years ago.

[Old Savage]

I invested $5000 in an idea once and got $3000 back.

[JimT]

I invested $5000 in an idea once and got $3000 back.

wow! that's a better return than the government gets!

[madman4570]

This is just my opinion and "dont take this as any legal advice"(consult a lawyer)which I am not!

Permanent Patents vary based on its complexity! You have to take in factors such as the cost of "writing it properly" with all legal bases covered.You will need complete searching done for verification no previous patents are out there.You will do all the drawing work???You will have to file it and have Examiner Negotiations,There is a cost of it being Issued,and have to consider a Maintenance Cost once its established.

Unless you are a Patent Lawyer(its going to costs around 15K)(If you do "a lot" of legwork yourself maybe half that)???

Again,this is not advice to be taken, just my opinion!

[Leverluver]

One thing that most never consider is that there is no such thing as a "patent police". Nobody cares if your patent is stolen. It is 100% your responsibility to defend your patent. First, you have to find out if there is anyone that is indeed ripping off your patent. If it is not an advertised item, it is quite common to never even find out that it is. Second, if they are, YOU have to spend a small fortune to bring suit and defend the patent. If a large company that actually thinks your "whatever" is worth the fight, it could easily cost you $100,000 to bring the suit and even then there is no quarantee that you will win. Do your "prior art" investigation very thouroughly. If someone elses search finds pertinent prior art, that is relevent, that you did not disclose in your patent application, the whole thing could be nulified and that happens far more often than anyone talks about.

[crs]

RE what Leverluver said +1
In his last sentence "If someone elses search finds pertinent prior art, that is relevent, that you did not disclose in your patent application, the whole thing could be nulified and that happens far more often than anyone talks about."

In the rush to a patent, it is easy to overlook (sometimes intentionally) relevant prior art. Recently, I had the priviledge to help defeat a lawsuit by a firm that had neglected or overlooked prior art in a method patent back in the 80's and had been making lots of money of late suing large companies for infringement. Their latest and I hope last, intended victim chose to fight the infringement suit and chose a consultant friend of mine to prove prior art, which we did, and the lawsuit was dropped. The good guys won that one.

[madman4570]

+1

[El Chivo]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Freedom-Clarinet-Li ... 2ea6f0bdf6

I have one on this little guy, a clarinet accessory.

I went through an inventor's club, I heard the ads on the radio. They were legit, they did some research for me, made some recommendations, and filed all the papers. I think it cost me about $2500 altogether, this was in 1997.

Marketing your product is the hard part, it's hard to convince stores/distributors to take it on. The internet helps, I've sold more of these this year than ever before, because I finally went direct to the public.

If I had it to do again, though, I wouldn't patent it, I'd just produce it and sell it. Someone may copy your design, but going after them would get very expensive, so why patent?

What they told me about prior art is, a new invention has to be 20% different from any other to qualify for a patent. Someone has to judge what 20% is.