Do-It-Yourself Patent Process Information Guide
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Are you an inventor, a thinker, or dreamer? Protect your business ideas and inventions and start your patent process today. We can help you DIY or guide you through the process and then help connect you with investors.
Utility patents
(20 yrs) under federal statute any person who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and usefulimprovement, may obtain a patent.
Design patents
(15yrs) protects the way an article looks. Since most manufactured items possess both functional and ornamental characteristics, both utility and design patents may be required to protect the invention.
Plant patents
May be granted when a new variety of plant is discovered and asexually reproduced. The patent protects the inventors right to exclude others from asexually reproducing, selling or using the plant so reproduced.
(20 yrs) under federal statute any person who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvements, may obtain a patent.
(15yrs) protects the way an article looks. Since most manufactured items possess both functional and ornamental characteristics, both utility and design patents may be required to protect the invention.
May be granted when a new variety of plant is discovered and asexually reproduced. The patent protects the inventors right to exclude others from asexually reproducing, selling or using the plant so reproduced.
An item can be patented if it is useful, novel, non-obvious
Means that the subject item has a useful purpose. It also means that the item is
operable,
Your invention cannot have prior history that is why the USPTO does a search to see if there is any prior history printed form or was in use at least one year prior to your application. For example, tire manufactures have long known the formula for making tires. If you invented a new formula for making tires last longer by slightly changing the formula this could bepatentable as long as the difference was not obvious.
Is defined as a sufficient difference from what has been used or described before.
Please reference 35 USC 102 conditions for patentability: NOVELTY revised January 2018
The Pro Bono Program originated from the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (2013) which encouraged the USPTO to support intellectual property law association and established the Pro Bono Programs designed to assist financially under-resourced independent inventors and small businesses. The Program is a nationwide network of independently operated regional programs that match volunteer patent professionals with financially under-resourced inventors and small businesses for the purpose of securing patent pending protection. This could cost as little as $70.00 fee and includes a Provisional Application cover sheet. A Micro Entity Certification and for legal assistance an inventor application for the Pro Bono Regional office near you. Generally the Administrative fee for the Regional Pro Bono legal Program is around $100.00.
Standard application
In the US a standard patent application is called a “non-provisional” application which includes:
Provisional
In the US this application provides an opportunity to place an application on file to obtain a filing date so you can secure a priority date but without the expense and complexity of a standard patent. The disclosure in a provisional application in the US is good for 1 year it then has to be incorporated into a standard application if you are going to pursue the patent. Claims and oath or declaration are not required for a provisional application and permits the term “Patent Pending” to apply to the invention. The filing date of a provisional application is the date on which a written description of the invention and drawings if necessary are received in the USPTO. You must also include the filing fee and a cover sheet specifying that the application is a provisional application for patent. You then have 12 months to file a nonprovisional application. Provisional applications may not be filed for design inventions.
Continuation
This is a continuation of a previous application. This is a convenient way to include material from a previous application when the year has expired and further refinement is needed.
Divisional
This is an application is when the application is divided from an existing application
I have been an inventor and off the wall dreamer for years. Ideas are a part of our human nature. We can’t help ourselves, we just keep thinking. It separates you from your neighbors and friends. Some people just have an ability to see or envision new and different things. If you’re like me and don’t have an endless supply of money, hopefully the info that I have put together you will find useful. I have one patented Utility invention and am currently working on a few more. Starting next year, I will be filing a provisional application so I have a year to tweak and save for the more formal non-provisional patent. Make sure you apply for Micro Entity Statues.
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