Patents

Getting a patent isn’t an easy process.  There are many factors to consider and the average inventor may be concerned about making a mistake due to ignorance.  Listed are a number of commonly asked questions about patents.

Q: What is a patent?
A: A patent is a protection of intellectual property granted by a national governing body over a period of time.

Q: Who can obtain a patent?
A: Virtually anyone can obtain a patent, assuming that they are the owner or inventor of an idea that is original, useful and has not yet been patented.

Q: Why should I obtain a patent?
A: If you’ve invented a product and have begun to market it, it’s very likely that an opportunist may copy your product and sell it at a competitive rate.  A patent will ensure that the invention is yours and it stays yours for quite awhile, and that you or the owner of the patent are the only ones who can capitalize on its existence in the marketplace.

Q: How do I get a patent?
A: A patent can be obtained from your country’s patent office.  In the United States, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is in charge of issuing patents.  They have an extensive website where you can download an application and instructions about how to fill out an application.  A completed application must be turned in to the USPTO along with the payment of a fee.  This will ensure that your invention will be reviewed for patent approval.

Q: When will my patent expire?
A: A patent will expire a number of years after the filing date.  Depending on the type of patent you filed, the expiry date could be anywhere from 14 to 20 years in the United States.

Q: I’ve invented something on my company’s time, using my company’s resources.  Whose name will appear on the patent application?
A: Yours.  You are responsible for the completion of a patent application and the signature on the application must match your own.

Q: A partner of mine and I developed an invention that we’d like to patent.  How do we fill out the patent application so that we both own the patent?
A: There is a patent application available to those who would like to share the responsibility for a patent.  However, this can only be used if the invention contains the ideas of both parties.

Q: I’ve invented something great and I’ve already started to manufacture and sell it.  However, I didn’t think to get a patent for the item.  What happens if someone steals my idea?
A: The best move for you to take is to immediately file a patent application for the idea.  If the patent is approved, it’s likely that you can sue for patent infringement using the ‘prior-use’ defense.  At article generation time, the prior-use defense could only be used for business methods in the United States, but the government is looking to validate it for all patent types.

Q: I’ve heard that it’s possible to file for international intellectual property protection.  Is this true?
A: Yes and no.  When you file your patent application, your country will be in charge of determining whether the invention is patent-worthy, and your patent will be good in your country only.  However, there are international treaties that define laws that can be enforced if someone in another country infringes on your patent.

Q: How can I make sure that my invention isn’t infringing on anyone else’s patent?
A: In order to make sure you’re making something original, you’ll need to conduct market research.  Patent lawyers and agents can help you out with that.  In addition, there are databases available via the web that you can search to determine what inventions out there are like yours.

Q: How much does getting a patent cost?
A: There are two costs involved with getting a patent.  First of all, when you file a patent application, you will need to pay a fee to cover the costs of evaluation.  Secondly, in most cases, there is a fee involved with keeping a patent alive.  The fee is paid to the government body that issues the patent.

A novice inventor can be turned off easily by the patenting process.  To be an innovator can be daunting for anyone: the inventor has to be the sole advocate for the product or process they invented.  However, what the inventor doesn’t know is that famous inventors were also vulnerable and had to fight off impatience and insecurity.  The stories of some of the most famous inventors may help an inventor by communicating they’re not alone.

Famous Inventor #1: Thomas Edison
Perhaps the most well-known inventor in history is Thomas Edison, the purported inventor of the light bulb.  What many people don’t know is that Edison was not the inventor of the light bulb.  The lighting device had been available for nearly fifty years before he worked on improving it.  With his changes – a sturdy carbon filament, a vacuum inside, and a lower electricity current – the light bulb could be widely manufactured and used even in homes.  Still, Edison spent many, many hours working on this project, trying hundreds of different variations of the light bulb before he came up with the version he’s famous for.

During Edison’s tenure as an inventor, he invented many things.  Although his greatest challenge was the light bulb, he spent time working to improve the phonograph and discovered ways to implement his version of the phonograph with a device called the kinetoscope to make the first motion picture machine.   Edison’s life was devoted to his creations, and he filed over 1,000 patents in his life.  An inventor can learn much from his experience, especially that one don’t need to be a genius to be an inventor: Edison did not do well in school.

Famous Inventor #2: Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln is far from being known as an inventor.  Instead, many claim that he was the greatest president in US history.  What many don’t know is that he’s the only president to also be a patent owner.  Since his childhood, Lincoln was incessantly curious.  He always had a fascination with machines and how they worked.  His talent wasn’t realized until he was forced to use a boat to travel after snows had melted and left the flat land covered with water.  He found that when he used the boat to travel, often times it would get caught and flowing water would end up in the boat.  Therefore, he decided to invent a bellow-type apparatus which would lift the boat up and away from getting caught under water.  In 1849, he was issued patent number 6,469.

Famous Inventor #3: Mary Anderson
It’s not often that you’ll see a lot of information about a female inventor.  However, women have invented many important devices in our world, including lasers, programming compilers, and even the popular HIV drug called AZT.  However, perhaps the most ubiquitous invention made by a woman is the windshield wiper, developed by Mary Anderson.

Anderson did not set out to be an inventor.  Instead, she led a life prior to her invention managing property and running a vineyard near Fresno, California.  In the winter of 1903, she ventured to New York City to visit some friends.  There, she took a trolley car and watched the operator constantly have to stop to wipe off snow and sleet from the windshield.  Upon her return home, she designed a window-cleaning device in which she had a local company construct.  Although she received a 17-year patent, it wasn’t until the patent expired and automobiles gained in popularity before the windshield wiper became well known.

Famous Inventor #4:  Chester Greenwood
When it’s cold outside, the natural response would be to reach for the earmuffs.  What isn’t widely known about earmuffs is that they were invented by a teenager.  In 1873, 15 year-old Chester Greenwood was ice skating out on a pond near his home in Farmington, Maine.  Although he was covered up, what he couldn’t stand was the way that his ears seemed to be the coldest part of his head.  He tried wrapping them in a scarf, but the scarf eventually fell off.  Therefore, he decided to cut a piece of wire, shape it around his head, and have his grandmother sew together some fur onto each end.   Thinking he had a winning item, he constructed a pair out of steel and fur, and started selling them.  The success of his product encouraged him to continue inventing.  He received an impressive number of patents before his death in 1937.

It’s very likely that you’ve dreamt vividly about interesting concoctions, and might have had a fleeting desire to take the idea into reality.  It’s also very likely that during one of your couch potato moments, you came across a commercial for a product that you wish you had thought of.  And, it’s also likely that you have thought about how you could create something to make your life or your family’s life easier, and then had seen someone else capitalize on the idea afterward.  If all three of these phenomena have come true, then you might benefit from thinking about trying your hand at invention.

Great inventors are both perceptive – they recognize when and where an improvement could be used – and resourceful.  One of the world’s most famous inventors, Dean Kamen, watched people close to him go to the hospital regularly to have drugs delivered over a period of hours.  This led him to develop the drug delivery pump, which is widely used today.  Although not every idea is going to be well-received – many inventors go through a number of inventions before they have a successful one – just the practice of inventing something can increase your skills with originality.

Nevertheless, an aspiring inventor must be realistic about what he or she can patent.  If the inventor is looking to reinvent the wheel, he or she will most likely be disappointed by failure.  Things like time travel, teleportation, and other science-fiction advents aren’t things that can be patented.  If the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has not put regulations in place for a particular invention, you won’t be able to get the idea patented.  Since science has not come far enough to allow for things like teleportation machines, it’s safe to say that the USPTO has not set up regulations for them.   In addition, although genetic engineering has brought about a whole new world of potential creatures, the USPTO has no regulations set up for patenting clones, and will not accept them.

This leaves a veritable cornucopia of things you can patent.  The amateur or professional physicist or engineer may create something that could be considered a machine or a product that can be manufactured.   An example of a successful machine that has been patented is the surge protector: it takes a technology that’s already in use, and compounds on it.  Keep in mind that if a new paradigm in power is invented, this cannot be patented.

The chemists who play it safe but can create new substances used in cleaning, lubricating or just about anything else can get a patent.  One very recognizable name in substances is Oxyclean, which is heavily advertised on television.  Even the popular drink Gatorade was patented in 1967.

Finally, a particular process or method can be patented.  This could be a chemical method to treat wood so that it can be used for a particular operation, or it could be a process that cleanly prints on unorthodox surfaces.

In addition, if you invent the next big product and want to ‘reinvent’ it so it’s got more appeal, the enhancement can be patented.  One example of this is the recent generation of the sweetener Splenda, which was recently released with added fiber.

In any case, the opportunities the aspiring inventor has to patent something are as endless as the drive for the inventor to create.