Patent & Intellectual Property Information

What is a patent?
A patent is a type of intellectual property that is a legal document that entitles its owner(s) to exclusively use, make, sell, or perform the invention.  As such the patent may be licensed to one, or more, entities by its owners to make, sell, or use the invention as long as the patent is in force.  The patent is in force as long as the maintenance fees are paid from its issue date until twenty years from the application date.  You may file for a utility patent on how which covers how it works or a novel method of producing an item, or a design patent which covers how something looks.

Why patent?
1.  Allows the owner the best opportunity to profit from the invention by preventing others from copying it

2.  Patents, being commercial property, provide a basis for owners to negotiate with potential investors

3.  Allows inventor to maintain ownership rights while licensing to others for profit


What can I patent?
Any new or useful process, machine, article or manufacture, composition of matter, or improvement of these may be patentable.  Patents for these types of inventions are called utility patents.  A design patent may be given for a new and original ornamental design for an article of manufacture.  A plant patent is granted for invention or discovery and asexual reproduction of a distinct and new variety of plant.

What about a provisional patent?
If an inventor is still developing a product, or wants to test market an invention, he or she may want to protect the invention and obtain a patent pending status without spending as much money.  For this situation, there is a patent called a provisional patent.  A provisional patent is not reviewed or published and is only valid for one year.  However, a provisional patent records, or holds, your date of invention from the date of application of the provisional patent.  When you are ready to obtain an issued patent on your invention, within a year's time, a utility patent is filed claiming benefit of the application date of the provisional patent.  This means only patents or literature before the date of provisional patent application are considered prior art.  Prior art is any publication, sale, use, or patent that may be similar enough to your invention to block your patent being issued or obtained.  The US Patent Office filing fee for a provisional application for a small entity is $130 as small entity or $65 as a micro-entity (a micro-entity is a person or company with fewer than 500 employees, 4 or fewer patents or applications, not counting provisional, and who had a gross revenue of less than $206,109 in 2020).  For more information visit the US Patent Office website at http://www.uspto.gov/patents/index.jsp.  

How much does a patent cost?
The current fees for patent filings can be found on the USPTO website at http://www.uspto.gov/.  You may qualify as a small entity if you are an independent inventor or small company of less than 500 employees, or as a micro-entity if you also have less than five U.S. patent applications or patents.  

These fees are in addition to fees you may pay an agent or attorney to prepare and file your application.  Agents may charge lower rates per hour than attorneys.  Patents must be written in certain formats and claims must be crafted carefully to ensure proper protection.  A claim is the legal definition of what you own as an inventor of an issued patent so their wording is important.

As an agent my fees vary depending on type and size of application.  My fees for a patent search or patentability assessment are generally $800-$1000 depending on complexity of the field.  Application drafting fees start at $300 for a simple design patent, $500 for a provisional patent, and $2000 for a utility patent.  In addition you may have patent illustration fees. Fees for prosecution, or defending your application to the US Patent Office, are billed at an hourly rate.


Patent Attorney or Agent? 
Anyone who is a USPTO (US Patent and Trademark Office) registered agent or attorney may represent an inventor before the USPTO.  Patent Attorneys are lawyers who are also registered agents.  In order to become a registered agent you must have a master's level or equivalent background in science or engineering and pass the patent agent's exam administered by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  

A patent agent files and prosecutes, or defends, patent applications to the USPTO just as an patent attorney does.  However an agent can not bring a lawsuit against another party in the case of patent infringement.  For patent infringement cases you must have an attorney.

Why a patent search? 
Patent searches at the beginning, as well as during other stages of patent preparation, are critical.  First you must decide if your idea is different enough from others to be patented, this is also known as a patentability assessment.  If an invention exactly like yours or an invention that would make your invention "obvious" is patented, printed, published, known or used, or on sale in this or other countries it may not be patentable and therefore not worth your time and money to apply for a patent.  A patent search can also help the patent drafter decide how claims should be written.  If your invention is different from something else you should know what makes it different and why that is important in order to protect that aspect of the invention.  A good practitioner will want to know everything about your invention from the beginning in order to perform a proper search and draft claims that properly define your invention.  After your invention is defined then it can be described in the application properly.

What do I do if I have a new idea? What is the patent process?
When you think you have an idea for a valuable invention the first thing you can do is a search.  Search the web for similar products and search patents and patent applications for anything similar to your idea. Patent professionals can be a good resource for performing worldwide searches. If you don't find something the same then the next step is to contact a patent professional.  A  patent professional can help you define what your invention is and what patent applications may be best for your situation.

What is a trademark?
A trademark is a type of intellectual property that is a brand name and a word, logo, symbol, design, device, or emblem that represents that brand name and distinguishes it from similar items.  A trademark does not have to be registered but federal registration has advantages of notice to public of ownership and legal presumption of ownership nationwide.  For more info go to http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/index.jsp. 

How is a copyright different?
Copyright is a type of intellectual property that is a legal form of protection for authors of “original works of authorship” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, such as movies, both published and unpublished.  A copyright protects the exact words of the author as differing from the subject matter of the writing as in a patent.  Copyrights are registered by the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress. Find more information here; https://copyright.gov/.