A provisional Application for patent may be filed anytime after your invention is created – once you are able to coherently describe how to make and use it. It is recommended that you file a provisional application before you publicly disclose your invention. In this way, you can publicly disclose your invention and put the…
A provisional application for patent is the most cost effective way to begin protecting your invention. It establishes your priority to the patent rights for your invention while you put the finishing touches on it, work up your non-provisional patent application, seek funding and do market research. With a provisional application on file, you can…
A patent grants an inventor rights to exclude others from making, using, or selling the idea claimed in the patent for a period of 20 years. A non-provisional patent application begins the examination process to determine if an idea is eligible for patent grant. This examination process (known as “Patent Prosecution”) can be long, highly…
Exposing of your idea or invention to the public more than 12 months before you file for patent protection may prevent you from obtaining patent rights to your idea or invention. There a number of ways you could have disclosed your invention to the public in the legal sense – the examples shown here only…
One way to prevent the provisional from expiring is to continuously have a provisional one file (just updated to the latest version of your back-end). If you let the provisional expire (and your back-end isn’t receiving a lot of press), you are back to square one. For the provisional to save you the risk of…
The USPTO allows you one year from the date of your first public disclosure to file for patent or provisional patent on your idea. This one-year period is known as the ‘grace period’. If you do not file for a patent or provisional patent within one-year of your first public disclosure, you will have been…
Since 2010, the number of patents filed from the automobile industry has nearly doubled as car manufacturers look to make greener, more autonomous cars affordable for the average consumer. This infographic provides some deeper insight into this evolving, technology-driven landscape. Request a Free Consultation Yuri Eliezer heads the intellectual property practice group at Founders…
When you intend on discussing your invention in depth with a third party, make sure they agree to keep the content of your discussion confidential. Also consider having them sign a non-disclosure agreement drafted by a Patent Attorney. If you are sending emails or documents containing descriptions of your inventions, be sure to label all…
Yes, because it will ensure that any patent rights to the subject matter of your application are reserved for you, the first-filer. This provides you a chance to trump someone who is attempting to claim those patent rights. In this way, we address the problem before the competitor is issued a patent. The fees to…
The USPTO recently did a press release about the issuance of the 700,000th design patent. The patent for the ornamental design for a “Hand-Held Learning Apparatus” was issued to Jason Avery of Berkeley, California and is currently assigned to Emeryville, California-based LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: LF). In case you did not already know a design patent…
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