The Patent Process in a Nutshell: Everything Inventors Need to Know Total Estimated Years of Your Life: 2 — 6 1. 99% Perspiration Once your great idea has hatched, the first step is to check whether it’s patentable. This is where a prior-art search comes in. It not only determines whether an invention already exists; …
Did you know that the global toy and game market is valued at $325 billion? Learn from USPTO and industry experts about protecting your toy or game invention tomorrow, Thursday December 18, 3-5:30 p.m. ET. A Toy’s Journey: Ideation to creation, protection to commercialization, and sales to enforcement is offered online and in person. Topics: …
Independent Inventors: Learn about the entire patent-filing process, start to finish. The USPTO offers a free fundamentals course in a three-day workshop from October 14 through 16, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET each day. The Stakeholder Application Readiness Training (StART) is for independent inventors, entrepreneurs, and anyone working for or with a small …
There are no “international” patents. To protect intellectual property in other countries, we file foreign patent applications, but in certain jurisdictions that cover those countries, as well as individual countries. There is an international application that leads to patents in specific countries, but there is no single patent or application that protects an invention globally. …
Filing a patent application: all the steps you need to know. 1. Do a Prior-Art Search. To determine whether your invention already exists and to gauge the “state of the art,” we do a prior-art search. It’s optional, but we strongly advise it. Here’s why. 2. File a Provisional Patent Application. A provisional patent …
Learn how to protect your innovation as you transition from idea to product. Join the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as they present monthly intellectual property training sessions. Held on the first Thursday of every month, these sessions cover general information about patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets. They guide inventors to local …
A design patent is simply a patent on the design of an invention. It differs from a utility patent in that it covers how an invention looks rather than what it does. This sounds obvious, but there’s nuance to know. A design patent is granted for any “original and ornamental design for an article of …
Without research, effort, and tireless promotion, an invention will not go very far. It is saddening when we observe some of our most creative clients failing to get their products sold because they may lack time, wherewithal, or inclination to pursue the development of their inventions. So we were happy to learn about the USPTO’s …
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) offers free resources for inventors. These include application assistance; education and training; help appealing or fixing an issue; and other services that support independent patent and trademark filers. As a patent agency, we have noticed big disparities in inventorship, so we were happy to learn about the …
A patent search is a multi-step process. Here at Keeley DeAngelo, we use Espacenet, Google Patents, and the USPTO’s new Patent Public Search (PPS) tool. The PPS user interface requires some learning, and the USPTO has been offering repeated trainings since it rolled out its new tool last year. The next training, on April 18 …