OT Anyone here ever patent something?, where to start? Options

[GaroldShaffer]

With all the different products we have here, I am sure someone has got a patent. Got a few ideas that I think I would like to patent. I have been reading some websites but would like to get some first hand input from someone that has done this process before.

Thanks!

[larryp]

Jake - I did not get your PM.

Guys, this is what I do. I have done it since 1984. Fuck, I am getting old. Let me make this plain, I bet I have gotten over 3,000 patents. Pharmaceuticals, mechanical, metallurgical, electrical, chemicals, aerospace. Um, hats, pet devices and skateboards. So I pretty much understand the economics of the process (and John, your estimates were low) and where the patents fit into the business plan.

Let me make this plain, for the vast majority of you, just stay away from it. Keep your money. It is not for the neophyte; getting a "patent" does not mean you can sell your invention, it does not mean your invention is worthwhile and it does not mean anyone else will buy it. It is nice to get a bound document with a ribbon and a seal and if that is enough for you, then fine. But to have it make sense from a business perspective you ought really to have a business in place beforehand. Many of these postings seem to be of the "gee, I have an idea" sort and that is a hard way to go. Honestly, I have a few great big companies that got the bug and a few years later realized "whoops!" because for the concept to pay off, it has to be a great big part of your R&D budget.

I dunno. I am tired and rambling and ought to shut up. To answer somwe questions. If you want to do a patent on the cheap, write up (with drawings if applicable) the idea in the form of a patent, in as detailed a manner as possible. Preferably with claims. It will be crap, but it will be text we can use. And any start is a plus; we are like taxicabs, we charge by the hour. So whatever you do will be cheaper, since we did not have to do it for you. And we do not mind; it is a plus.

What is patentable? Well, what is novel (never has been done before), nonobvious (is not obvious from what has been done before) and useful. The idea of "novelty" is not what is "commercially available"; novelty is what is not published anywhere in this or a foreign country or publicly known (i.e., not secret). (We use a lot of negatives, sorry. Try parsing out the USC sometime.) So that is why we do searches; if the invention was published in an indexed dissertation in some University library in Austria, it is not novel. That does not mean you have to do a search, you can file wiithout one. But you will generally get a better job if you do one. I can have a decent search done on a simple mechanical device for 1000. And that may be dispositive; if the search shows your idea then there is no reason to go further.

I can post links to some simple patents (skateboard, method for relining cylinder walls, a hat) tomorrow. You might find them useful. Keep in mind that each cost ca. 13,000 to file, and some more to prosecute. The hat is a big success here (though that is marketing, not the patent (it has not issued yet) and the skateboard should be but is not. That patent in particular should have been licensed to Burton or something but the inventor decided for whatever reason not to. But he is not working it either, and that may be the salient warning here. What do you want it for?

If you have no competitors, you do not need it. If your market expires quickly, you do not need it. If you can squash your competitors through other means (let's ignore the Lanham Act for a moment) you do not need it. If your market is small you (likely) do not need it.

Later.