How do you apply for a patent?

Answer 1

NOLO is a great, free informational site. Also, be sure to read what the USPTO (United States Patent & Trademark Office) has to say about patents.

Associations may be a good avenue to explore. These organizations will address many of the thoughts, questions and concerns you'll inevitably have as well as many you haven't anticipated yet. See the source box for some relevant links.

Research, research, research – this cannot be stressed enough. Read as much as you can. Here are some book titles that are relevant:

Getting a Patent:
* Patent It Yourself (11th Edition) by David Pressman
* Patents and How to Get One : A Practical Handbook by U.S. Department of Commerce
* How To Make Patent Drawings Yourself: A Patent It Yourself Companion by Jack Lo
* The Inventor's Notebook: A Patent It Yourself Companion by Fred E. Grissom

There are plenty of free informational resources out there. Check the source box for links to articles.

Hope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!

Answer 2

Hi,

The following advice is based on you being in the UK, but will apply in the main no matter which country you are based in.

I recommend that you get in contact with a patent attorney if you have an invention which you are serious about protecting. It is very difficult for a layperson to write a valid and useful patent application - a patent is a legal document just as much as is the deed for your own home! Do not disclose your invention except under conditions of strict confidentiality until you have filed a patent application. If you are in the UK then you can find a patent attorney from the website of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (www.cipa.org.uk). If keeping costs to a minimum is important then you should probably use a sole practitioner rather than a large firm.

Just a few basics: You can start off by filing a UK patent application, and then within a year you can start looking towards protection in other countries (e.g. the US) or regions (e.g. Europe). There are a number of mechanisms to do this in an efficient and cost effective (but still fairly costly) manner. But protection in a number of countries is inevitably many times more expensive than protection in one country, and most private individuals would need financial backing to achieve it (I know of one private individual who remortgaged his house to afford it himself!).

Patent applications are examined, and if they meet various requirements such as novelty (not been done before) and inventiveness (not a mere obvious modification of that which has been done before) etc, then they are granted. This process takes upwards of 2 years, depending on the country (the UK is pretty quick for example).

Remember also that there is little point in getting an patent unless you are going to use it. Ways of using it include licensing it, using it to give yourself a monopoly position within the marketplace, selling it to someone else, or even merely to wave at people to show how clever your product is!

Depending on what you have invented, registered design protection may or may not be relevant. Again, a patent attorney would be able to advise you on this.

Hope all that helps.

Answer 3

Visit the website of the US Patent and Trademark Office at http://www.uspto.gov/. It is the official agency for the US Dept of Commerce where all patents, trademarks and intellectual property are legally registered. I suggest this because it's a starting point and will give you a comprehensive overview of what you will need to do. Particularly in today's global marketplace where counterfeiting and piracy are so commonplace. They also list seminars nationwide that you can attend that guide you through the process. It's helpful to have an understanding before you decide to seek legal counsel to file your claim. Hope this helps.

Answer 4

at the patent office.

Answer 5

Don't try to do this without a lawyer. It's very complicated - far more so than it is to get a trademark.

Answer 6

If your in the UK you can start here:
http://www.patent.gov.uk/

Best of luck