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The Patenting Process
by Karin Elkemare
http://www.fiberpatents.com
You need a patent if you have invented something and you do
not want someone else to steal the credit. Patents are just
one form of protecting intellectual property, which means
those things are made using just the enormous power of the
human brain. Patents apply to inventions, but other forms
of intellectual property protection include copyright (for
works of art like books and songs), and trademarks (for
brands and logos).
If you think you have invented something then it may well
be worth taking out a patent. If there is money to be made
out of the invention, then to get what you are due you will
need a patent. There does not need to be a market for an
invention for it to gain a patent, though many inventors
are keen to patent things that will bring them some income
- Thomas Edison was perhaps the most famous example of such
an inventor.
When you apply for a patent, a government agency known
as the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO
for short) will review and process your application. The
whole process may be confusing, and patent attorneys
specialize in carrying out all the detailed work for an
inventor.
It used to be the case, from 1790 to about 1890, that
all applications had to come with a working model of
the invention. Not any more! Now all you need is a
"reduced to practice" description of your idea--a
written statement explaining your entire idea.
Though profit is not essential, to gain a patent something
does need to be a new idea - this is called a novel idea in
patent jargon. Patent examiners will be looking for the
existence of your idea in the patent records - it is known
as prior art.
Sometimes two people (or more) come up with the same idea
simultaneously, or you may think you've had an original
thought but someone already came up with it 50 or 100 years
ago. Such was the case with the theories of planetary
motion, evolution and perspective!
There are ways of looking for prior art, in other words
finding out if anyone has patented your idea before you. A
good starting point for US based inventors is the USPTO and
their online searchable database -
http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html - it is free to use.
You may need to be creative in your searching. Similar
databases exist for other countries.
In order to be approved, an idea doesn't just need to
be new, however; it also needs to be practical (and
that's not the same as being lucrative!). Moreover,
very obvious ideas will not be approved for a patent.
The rule is that if your idea is something a skilled
professional within the relevant industry would already
know about, it cannot be granted a patent.
In Europe and Japan, if two patents for the same idea are
placed at about the same time the patent goes to the first
person who placed the patent. In the US however the patent
will go to the first person to invent the thing.
Make sure you document your inventions by writing them
down in a journal or logbook, but keep it legally
acceptable (don't tear out pages or use a binder, which
would make it impossible to prove the date on which you
came up with a particular idea).
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