RE: Chris Pinter's 10 steps to researching your patentable idea.

johnbeetem — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 20:27:58 GMT

JMO/IANAL/YMMV

As of 16 March 2013, the USA switched from a "first to invent" system to a "first to file" system. This means that if you come up with a great idea and don't publish or patent it right away, someone else could come up with the same idea later and if they file a patent first then you can no longer use your idea without infringing on the later one. Insane? Yes. The law? Apparently so.

If you publish your idea in any form, you get a one year grace period in which to file a patent. Once it's published, it immediately becomes prior art, so if anyone comes up with the same idea they cannot patent it. Once the year is up, you can't patent it either and your Gendanke becomes frei.

My advice (IANAL) is to publish everything as soon as possible to protect yourself from someone else filing first. However,

for real legal advice you need to see a real lawyer. My information is from the Wikipedia page on the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act.

RE: Chris Pinter's 10 steps to researching your patentable idea.

DAB — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 19:35:25 GMT

Very good summary of the patent process.

I was involved with the patent process at my last job. It was a real eye opener as we went step by step through the process and responded to all of the issues the lawyers wanted.

I agree with your advice, unless you have a really unique idea that will sell a lot of copies, you probably are not going to survive the expense and effort needed for t he patent.

DAB