I am currently working on a project or two that I am interested in getting patented…I just have no idea where to start. Anyone have experience getting one? I definitely don’t mind buying someone a beer or two while I pick their brain.
My father has (at least) three patents…
If you’d like, I will make an introduction. He’s in South Dakota so you will either have to call or travel.
I have 10 US Patents and over 40 International Patents. They all belong to Texas Instruments but my name is on them as one of the inventors.
Digital Television System, The First All Digital Television, a precursor of HDTV.
This is the main Patent, search for “Texas Instruments” and “Richard Meyer” to find the rest of them. My advice up front, no not think you can do this yourself via some inexpensive website offering such services. You get exactly what you pay for. If you want your Patent to really have some legal teeth, then hire a Patent Attorney. It will cost you about $10K TO $15K and maybe up to 3 years to get, but it will have a better chance of standing up in court. I worked a lot with the Patent Attorneys and the legal verbiage that was used.
PM me if you want to make contact at DMS. There are others at DMS who have Patents as well. I know a few of them.
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In the strongest words possible, if you have something you think may be worth protecting, acquire counsel now. Don’t reveal it to anyone.
These guys are local and did right by a family member of mine.
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My advice is to learn and understand what goes into creating a good patent. Then identify specifically what it is you want to patent and why it is patentable. Then do an online patent yourself to ensure your idea is unique. (This sounds like a lot of work, but in a 3-4 evenings you can do it.) This will save you time when you do decide to meet with a patent attorney.
YouTube has some clips about patents:
(Controversial Title, but worth listening too.)
Also, you can get 1-on-1 advice on March 2nd:
If I can answer any questions, feel free to contact me.
As a patent holder myself, I would suggest you look strongly at your product and put a value for which you would sell your rights to it.
As an individual without a corporation behind you patents are a $10K to $20K piece of paper that requires you to defend that piece of paper for it to have any value. If you don’t have the funds to defend the patent, then you probably don’t need to spend the funds to get a patent.
But, I’m not a lawyer, and this advise is free. So take from it what you paid for it.
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This comment is probably the most important item mentioned. Some huge company can still come in and step all over you and take the Patent away. Yes, with a Patent you have a legal right to your creation, but you must also defend it or else you loose the rights altogether. Many a large company has taken over legal Patents just because the Patent owner did not have the funds to legally defend it. My Lawyer is better than your Lawyer, or I can afford to keep this in the courts longer than you can. It happens every day.
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This is why I never created a patent for what I built in the Jeep world.
Another tactic a friend of mine did, was he got several patents for the device he made. He patented the stuff that didn’t work as well. He told me he did that to keep them away from getting to close to his design. He did consult a patent attorney, but submitted it himself. He got it through on the first shot for all of them. His attorney was surprised.
While at Texas Instruments, if a Patent was ready for approval on the first shot they would pull it back and expand the content of it. They would keep expanding on it until there would be a legal challenge. One of my Patents was held up for 3 years, not because of the content, but because of the title.
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A huge thanks to everyone for the replies, each one was definitely helpful. I found a patent attorney that does pro-bono work and has agreed to help me. I am going to see what he says and then go from there. I don’t have anywhere near the resources it would take to defend a patent against a company with a dedicated legal team so it may not matter, but we will see what he has to say. Thanks again!
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Also, just because your patent is accepted, it doesn’t mean that it is a valid patent. The patent office is well known for accepting patents on things that are unpatentable or have prior art. So when filing a patent, much of the expense of doing so with an attorney is doing the legal research to make sure your idea is original and prior art is not already in other patents. Even with this research, there isn’t a guarantee that your idea is original. because prior patents can be miss filed not in categories you expect or just missed in the massive search.
This is where scope creep like @richmeyer explained can bite you. That said, he was working with a group that was likely well versed and tried to cover as much as possible. This was likely just for the chance to use their legal teams as they are the army, the patent is but a weapon.
I have been told that in the Abstract of the Patent (the first paragraph) that you can define any word to mean anything. Such as, if the critical term of your Patent is the word “Cellphone”, then you can define the word “Cellphone” as the term “Spaghetti”. So, in your Patent the word “Cellphone” is used only once and the word “Spaghetti” is used many times. This legal maneuver is to confuse those Patent searches for prior art that rely only computer word searches. A search for Cellphone prior art would only find the word “Cellphone” once and the searcher will typically pass that Patent up as they are looking for Patents with multiple hits instead of just one. Therefore, I agree with @Nick . . .
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This has been fun @richmeyer,
As you can see I really like to understand things when I do them. I have but one patent for a bike light that I no longer manufacture and would likely not challenge anyone if I saw it on the market again. But, I got to dive deep into the world of patents with a great lawyer and really enjoyed the knowledge. This whole process for me was made possible by the DMS and the members that helped me turn my idea and lack of skills into a viable product. I got a crash course on Electronics, Manufacturing, Foreign Sourcing, Local and Foreign Manufacturing, and tackling a new market to me.
@WillFrazer I’m glad you are getting to see some of the depth of our knowledge at DMS. There really is no one person in our group that is smarter than the whole. Also, our group knowledge is the largest and most valuable tool we offer. I hope we protect our TALK forums, because they are the best access point to this tool.
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Please let us know how it goes, with him. I have couple of ideas that I believe are worth patenting.
Could some one take a class or two to guide amateurs like me? I can’t afford a patent attorney but would want to make my best effort to file a patent. I understand the limitations of DIY patent application, but I want to give it a chance.
Also, would something like this process be feasible as a whole or in parts?
- File a provisional patent with just enough obscurity in the content.
- Find sponsors
- Hire Attorney
- Research and complete the actual patent application
- File non Provisional Patent
You mean teach a class?
We have those from time to time.
Haven’t seen them lately…
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Would an algorithm be a Design or Utility patents or a Copyright?
If you file for a patent, it is a utility patent.
From
https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s1502.html
If you just write code, it’s copyright.