Some inventors are entrusting their potentially patentable ideas to organizations advertising online, in publications, or commercials on TV or radio. However, in my opinion all inventors should equate it to playing the suicidal game of Russian roulette with their lifetimes of financial security.
The presenters always sound 100% sincere and honest. But, they are complete strangers with the objectives of making money and have NO personable allegiances to you at all: ABSOLUTELY NONE.
A big company offering big $bucks to betray YOU might persuade one to accept the offer. You would never suspect it until your invention is marketed. Then the burden (obtaining evidence and finances) would then be on you to prosecute your case in court and win a judgment, which would be virtually impossible.
CAUTIONS for All Inventors
There is absolutely NO SHORTCUT through the patent process. Some have learned that trusting do-it-yourself materials forced them to forfeit their ideas. I therefore strongly advise trusting an old country cliché that says, your longest way around may be your quickest way home”.
If you should proceed to file a patent application without employing an attorney, your pitfall would most likely be having to respond to the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) “first office actions”, i. e., the USPTO’s first responses to patent applications.
The action rejects applications because of patents cited that should be compared to the ideas. The rejections occur even when applications are submitted by attorneys. An applications written by you and not by an attorney is virtually guaranteed nonconformity to the USPTO’s language specifications and could be too damaging even for patent attorneys to intervene.
Patent attorneys know the language specifications and the laws governing the patent process. Other individuals typically do not. An attorney’s use of just one word or sentence that may not be grammatically correct to the the average person could be the determining factor in a patent being issued.
See the tab, Language in A Patent, for an example of a patent attorney’s grammar in a patent. And, be advised that the example IS NOT to be construed as a guideline to follow. Rather, the objective is to completely discourage everyone that has not retained a patent attorney from endeavoring to write their own patent applications and to encourage them to employ attorneys to do it.
FYI: You making just one sale of an invention prior to submitting it to the patent process will disqualify it forever from being patented.
Although I am one amongst many inventors and consequently have some experiences with the patent process, I am not a patent attorney. Thus, I DO NOT give anyone legal advice. I only give good advice. Namely, retain a patent attorney.
The importance of keeping good records
I highly recommend that you see the movie, “Flash of Genius”. It is the true story about the developer of the intermittent windshield wipers: Robert Kearns.
Kearns was one of the inventor that is remembered for personally and successfully defending himself. He won a judgment against Ford Motor Car Company for stealing his invention. Kearns had no legal background and was one man against the auto-giants’ battalion of high-priced attorneys. (Other auto makers subsequently paid him settlements.)
As inventors are generally advised by their attorneys, Kearns kept good records of the progression of his invention from the date of concept to production. Thus, the strength of his defense in court was the records that he kept. Therefore, if you do not have the finances to pursue the patent process, get an attorney’s directives for how to protect your idea until you are certain of having the finances.
What inventors should do . . .
Visit the United States Patent & Trademark Office website: www.USPTO.gov. Read about the Utility Patent Application, the Design Patent Application, and especially the Provisional Application for Patent. Ask an attorney about other types of applications.
