Anyone here patent anything?

[tbomachines]

We've got a ton of creative and intelligent people on here, thought it might be interesting to see if anyone has patented anything. I have a very good marketable idea that I am trying to move forward with (something simple and logical that is not on the market at all). No idea if it will get anywhere but its worth a shot.

[The Clk Man]

Originally Posted by tbomachines

We've got a ton of creative and intelligent people on here, thought it might be interesting to see if anyone has patented anything. I have a very good marketable idea that I am trying to move forward with (something simple and logical that is not on the market at all). No idea if it will get anywhere but its worth a shot.

Does it have anything to do with broccoli?

[t walgamuth]

I have an idea which I would like to patent at the moment....let me know how you do it.

[TheDon]

Get in contact with a patent lawyer. Patenting ideas can be expensive and a long process and a PL can be very helpful.

[Emmerich]

Chance are it has already been done. You can search the PTO database as a first step. Plus there is more than one type of patent.

And remember a patent is not a law, it (like a copyright) is nothing more than a reason to allow you to sue someone who used it without your permission.

[duxthe1]

If you don't have the dough to enforce one, it wont afford you much good. At least thats my take after looking into it a while back.

[Stretch]

From what I can gather patenting something is a useful tool of litigation - it doesn't mean that you've safe guarded your idea / invention at all. You need lots of money to fight off those who have copied it. There are many out there who will copy but alter slightly so that they can "legally" make something similar...

I wouldn't waste your time making a patent at a personal level. I'd find some rich large company (who you can trust!) who would be interested in the idea.

Don't expect anything to do with patents to be fair.

[Mölyapina]

Originally Posted by Stretch

I wouldn't waste your time making a patent at a personal level. I'd find some rich large company (who you can trust!) who would be interested in the idea.

This. Or even a smaller company... just somebody who has nothing better to do with his time or money than fight patent infringements.

[Air&Road]

I never made it all the way to a patent, but in the process learned a few things.

It was about 25 years ago, so this may not be of any value in today's world of law. I got a book on the subject and they said that as early as possible establish the date of your idea. They called it a postage stamp patent. What you do is put as much technical detail together as you currently have on paper and mail it to yourself registered, sealed mail. Then do NOT open it, unless the time were to come when you need to establish a date earlier than someone competing for the same patent. You would then let them open it in court.

I mailed all this stuff to the company I worked for and they filed it away. I actually developed the auto loading automatic guided vehicle, as part of a system that we installed, but we never got to the point of it having a wide enough market to pursue further.

For Tom and TBO, you might check into this and see if it is still a worthwhile thing to do. If so, even if you only have a sketch and a scribbled description of the idea, seal it and mail it, so that you get a stake in the ground to establish a date.

Of course, if some time passes and you move further along and don't need to establish an earlier date, don't use it, use a later date, so that the patent will be in force for a longer amount of time.

[tbomachines]

Originally Posted by Air&Road

I never made it all the way to a patent, but in the process learned a few things.

It was about 25 years ago, so this may not be of any value in today's world of law. I got a book on the subject and they said that as early as possible establish the date of your idea. They called it a postage stamp patent. What you do is put as much technical detail together as you currently have on paper and mail it to yourself registered, sealed mail. Then do NOT open it, unless the time were to come when you need to establish a date earlier than someone competing for the same patent. You would then let them open it in court.

I mailed all this stuff to the company I worked for and they filed it away. I actually developed the auto loading automatic guided vehicle, as part of a system that we installed, but we never got to the point of it having a wide enough market to pursue further.

For Tom and TBO, you might check into this and see if it is still a worthwhile thing to do. If so, even if you only have a sketch and a scribbled description of the idea, seal it and mail it, so that you get a stake in the ground to establish a date.

Of course, if some time passes and you move further along and don't need to establish an earlier date, don't use it, use a later date, so that the patent will be in force for a longer amount of time.

Great idea, minimal investment. Thanks Larry!

I think I am going to be doing a whole lot of research myself on this (I have already started, thankfully its something I'm used to) and depending on findings consulting with a PL and going from there. My fear is that pitching the idea to a large company may result in their convenient sudden enlightenment of the same idea as soon as I get shoo'ed out. It is a truly marketable product, key probably in manufacturing cost.

[tbomachines]

Originally Posted by The Clk Man

Does it have anything to do with broccoli?

It could actually...

[Air&Road]

Originally Posted by tbomachines

Great idea, minimal investment. Thanks Larry!

I think I am going to be doing a whole lot of research myself on this (I have already started, thankfully its something I'm used to) and depending on findings consulting with a PL and going from there. My fear is that pitching the idea to a large company may result in their convenient sudden enlightenment of the same idea as soon as I get shoo'ed out. It is a truly marketable product, key probably in manufacturing cost.

Yes, the book that I read way back then, WARNED about sharing your idea with ANYONE.

There was a period when there was a company that advertised for people to bring them their inventions. The first thing that hit me about that was, how do you know you can trust them?

I remember hearing stories about the invention of the pushbutton socket release sold to Sears Craftsman and the intermittent wiper idea sold to Ford. In both cases, the guys were screwed royally and had to take the chance of going to court in order to come up with a worthwhile gain.

Of course in your case, you can post the details on this forum. I'm SURE that there is no one on here that you couldn't trust.

[JB3]

Originally Posted by tbomachines

We've got a ton of creative and intelligent people on here, thought it might be interesting to see if anyone has patented anything. I have a very good marketable idea that I am trying to move forward with (something simple and logical that is not on the market at all). No idea if it will get anywhere but its worth a shot.

Worked for a company where we developed some interesting stuff and went through a process to patent one of our products

We mostly were involved with design patents, but depending on what you have, you could be looking at a utility patent, or maybe a plant patent. I think there are more, but those are the three I remember.

The design patent is basically a thing or style, like if you make a dramatically different looking spoon or toaster or such

The utility patent is for a process, if your idea is a new way to develop that spoon, not the spoon itself essentially.

The plant patent has to do with genetic stuff and making hybrid plants, but I know little about it.


For our application, we were working on a fuel cell, and needed a design patent. First of all, id say be very careful how you proceed with finding a good lawyer and do a lot of interviews. We got ripped off big time legally at first by a big firm that could care less about us, but charged us 1500 dollars for doing a bit of research.

Second the whole patent thing is a fascinating part of law. It takes forever to actually patent something, and people are allowed to put "patent pending" on products which they filed an application on, not necessarily if they actually receive the patent, so that allowance can actually be used as a strategy bringing a product to market.

In our case, we learned a few interesting things, one that for our product, a fuel cell, we could not patent the whole thing. A fuel tank is a broad item, and no patent would ever be issued for something that there are thousands of similar products on the market. However, you could patent a unique feature of the fuel cell that was wholly our own, and not have to specify what exactly was patented about the item, just that it said patent pending on it for release.

Eventually we went through the process of patenting the angle of a curve of our cell, and then we could print patent pending on it and have some measure of protection from people stealing the entire idea.

Interestingly, when you apply for the patent, the documentation disappears into thin air for months and months till its review, so during the patent pending phase of the product release, what exactly is patented on it is impossible to research, allowing you to get out there and get ahead of competition until the patent is either granted and can be viewed, or denied.

Also we learned that the whole patenting process has been revamped in the last 10 years and its harder to get patents these days. This is because of this phenomena our lawyer described to us as "Patent Trolls".

Evidently there was this whole level of business where someone would start a company, find out what other companies were designing, and file patents before they did, then sue for royalties. The problem was bad enough that that law was amended to get some control over these parasitic organizations.

I recommend you go to the SBA first and get some advice from them on how to proceed. We found that extremely useful, and as a free government service, very pleasant.

[rscurtis]

Patent # 4,160,425, "Fuel system for aquatic craft". Never made any money with it, but it was a good education.

[Chad300tdt]

Contact Anthony Sullivan. You could have the next OxyClean on your hands.