How To Patent An Idea — The Basics of Patenting: Patent Your Idea to Make It More Valuable

In the United States of America, the patent issued by the Government allows the individual to prevent other people from producing, utilizing, selling or offering to sell the patented item within the boundaries of the US, or import it into the country. In order to be eligible for a patent the invention has to possess new characteristics and not be apparent for an average expertise. This means, that you will not be able to receive a patent for a law of nature, supposition or printed material.

Kinds of patents:
•Utility patent. This kind of patent is aimed at protecting the rights of an individual for a novelty in technology they came up with, e.g. mechanisms, machines, chemical compounds etc. The period of protection by the patent starts on the very day of the patent being granted, and lasts for 20 years from the day the inventor applied for the patent. This kind of patent is the most widespread.
•Patent for a design. This patent allows protecting the product’s original ornamental design; this kind, however, does not cover the design philosophy or functioning characteristics. In this respect, patents for a design are more narrow and specific. They last for 14 years starting from the day the patent was granted.
•Plant patent is issued in case an individual makes a discovery of a new species of plant, and manages to reproduce it by grafting and cutting. The new kind must be clearly different from the ones commonly known.
Is it possible to patent your innovation?

In order to be patented the product:

•must be useful (mainly referring to technical processes, industrial processes, method of doing business, manufactured items, machines, chemical compounds – mixtures or new compounds. In fact, the ultimate purpose of the patent is to protect the rights of an individual for anything that is created by them, as well as the method used to create the novelty.
•must function properly. For instance, a mechanism, which is claimed to perform certain tasks, must do so.
•must be new and not apparent, based on a similar product. The determinative condition is that the product must not have differences from a previously known example, that can be considered unsubstantial, making the two items very similar.
•can not be already legally patented in the US or merely printed and described in any way in published materials. In case an individual presents a novelty to the general public or offers it for sale, they are required to file a patent application within a year. So, if you published the information concerning your novelty, you are entitled by the United States Government to one year for seeking the protection of your patent rights.
•can not represent a simple idea, thought or suggestion. In other words, this should be a process or an item, and the inventor is required to provide a detailed description of the way the product should be used.
•can not be a law of nature, natural phenomenon, or an idea that is abstract. These are not possible to patent.
Why is patent protection necessary?
Patenting your invention prevents other people, your competitors, from copying and implementing the product. As the patent owner, you can dispose of your invention by selling the patent application, patent right – entirely or partially, as well as license the use of it.

Patenting is crucial for individuals planning on selling or licensing their invention to a manufacturing company. In fact, the companies usually will refuse to work with the inventor, if he or she has not applied for a patent. Remember, that your novelty is not completely protected until you obtain the regular patent.

Patent searches
Before you officially apply for a patent, consider carrying out a patentability search. This is something that will save your time and money, in case a similar patent was already issued to somebody else. Patentability search is aimed at finding prior art, in case it exists. The first step is searching through the Internet; you can start from the official website of USPTO (the United States Patent and Trademark Office) uspto.gov. If you want to receive professional consultation on the matter of the patentability of your invention, be prepared to spend from $1,000 to $2,500 on a good and experienced patent attorney.

You can conduct your own preliminary search to find out whether you are likely to infringe others’ patent rights. Infringement of a patent claim takes place if there is a case of violation (by an individual or a company) of other party’s rights; this can happen in the form of producing, using or selling certain processes or products, which include each and every parts of the patent claim originally made. Even if the abovementioned process or product contains one or more new parts or elements, the infringement occurs. You can obtain a regular patent for a product that you modified by adding new characteristics, but this will still be considered infringement of patent right of the primary product.

One more step you can take is the full search, examination and analysis of the patents existing; the price can be around $20,000, or even more. This procedure also takes significant amount time to conduct. Even though this data analysis is carried out by professionals, the issue of infringement of patent rights remains. For example, when your patent is issued, it can be declared invalid by the court, due to a claim of a certain party. It may happen in case the search or the USPTO did not reveal certain pertinent art. It is recommended to receive a consultation of a qualified patent attorney, who will advise you on the steps you need to take.

In case you made up your mind about applying for a patent, you need go through the following steps:

Patent obtainment
The first thing you are required to do, is apply for the patent at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. You can either come there in person, or have someone act on your behalf (for instance, it may be a registered patent attorney). The application you need to file includes the following parts: full description of the novelty, its drawn images, as well as claims (definition of the novelty in legal terms). Your invention receives the status “Patent Pending” after you file your application. At this point, you do not have to present the functioning model of the product.

Fees:
Utility patent: You will be required to pay 3 kinds of fees as you apply for the patent: 1) filing fee – $300.00, 2) search fee – $500.00, and 3) examination fee – $200.00. If your application is successful, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office approves the patent, you will be required to pay two additional fees: 1) publication fee – $300.00 and 2) issue fee – $1,400.00. You also need to add to the total cost fees for the processing of your order and expedition. However, if you are an independent inventor, or represent a small business, the fees are reduced by half. All the fees are to be paid to the United States Patent Office. With this kind of patent you must also pay the so-called maintenance fees after 3.5, 7.5 and 11.5 years.

Patent for a design: 1) filing fee – $200.00, 2) search fee – $100.00, 3) examination fee – $130.00 4) issue fee – $800.00. You also need to add to the total cost fees for the processing of your order and expedition.

If you also use the services of a patent attorney, the usual cost of application for the utility patent reaches $6,000-$11,000. In fact, more than a half of this sum is spent on the attorney’s services, which why some people prefer to do everything on their own. As for patents for a design and plant patents, the cost is usually significantly lower – under $2,500.

In order to receive the patent you are also required to go through the prosecution of the application; this can be done on your behalf by a patent attorney, and will most likely cost you around $3,000 in extra fees. It can take 2 years to obtain the patent, as all the steps, such as preparation, submission, prosecution and granting the patent itself, are followed carefully by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The final cost can vary from $8,000 to $12,000, depending on whether you used professional help from the attorney.

If you decide to go through the procedures on your own, you can end up spending $1,500.00 – $2,500.00 in fees. However, in this case you do not have the possibility of consulting a qualified professional patent attorney.

The maintenance fees are required for enforcing the protection of your right guaranteed by the patent after it has been granted to you. These fees can vary from $900.00 to $3,800. Patents for design and plant patents require prosecution fees, but the costs are much lower and there are no fixed schedules for paying the fees.

To obtain further information concerning fees and schedules of payment, refer to the official website of the United States Patent and Trademark Office

If you patented your invention in the United States of America, it does not protect your rights beyond the borders of the country; besides, every state has its own patent right policies. In order to protect your patent rights in the United States, you are required to present the product, in which your novelty is used, within one year from its description being published. In case you decide to protect the patent right in another country, you must first apply for it, and only then publish the description of the novelty. There is a number of international agreements that make it possible for you not to file application for the protection of your patent rights in each country. However, due to the discrepancy of legal systems, applying for international patent rights is a complicated process that requires help of a qualified patent attorney.