Easy Patent Guide

A patent is a government granted right that allows the inventor to exclude anyone else from making, using or selling the invention in the country that issued the patent. The government grants this right to help encourage inventors to spend the time, money and effort to invent new products, technologies and the like.

A patent is an official document given by a national government to an inventor (or business or corporation) who wishes to have sole rights over a product for a limited amount of time. Once the patent is granted, no one else has the right to make, sell, market, or profit from the invention.

Inventors should review hiring a top tier patent attorney, versus filing on their own or even worse doing nothing to protect their most important asset.

A patent is the property right given by the U.S Patent and Trademark Office to an inventor. It gives the inventor an exclusive right over the invention preventing others from making, using or selling the invention stated in the patent deed. The main purpose behind issuing of patents is to enable the inventor in recovering developmental costs and help in facing the competition.

A lot of valuable information is now available of the industries in different databases in the web. Among all those patents the most important and easily available. Patent searching can give insights into the state of the art across any technical field. It can provide a platform to monitor the competitors activities by revealing which companies are involved in a field of technology of your interest. Patent searching data can also reveal the technological road map to a particular invention, the science or logic behind the invention, and its intended application.

Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) is a sister Treaty of the Paris Convention administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The PCT facilitates filing of patent applications under a single umbrella and provides for simplified procedure for the search and examination of such applications. There are now over 125 signatory countries to PCT. The PCT system is a very popular method of filing patent applications throughout the world.

Many companies begin manufacturing and selling their new product (a.k.a. their invention) to the marketplace before their patent is officially granted. They use the term “patent pending” to indicate that the product is proprietary and a patent is (just like the term states), pending.

The only way you (or any company) can ever legally use the term “patent pending” is when a patent application has been filed to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Any person or company who falsely uses this term can be fined. So take care to only use it when it is true.

Could you use a little help protecting your invention? If so, an attorney skilled in patent law is your best bet.

As you can imagine, conveying your invention to someone who knows nothing about it will be difficult. Therefore, it is best if you are in direct contact with your patent attorney. You can meet in person and show the patent attorney any prototypes or drawings you may have to help illustrate your invention. As you can probably guess, the process will go more smoothly if you work with a patent attorney near you. Although it can be done, a long distance relationship will only strain the process.