Attorney Jason E. Flaig offers a wide array of solutions to your innovation and business needs, including drafting and prosecuting patents. He is excited about your invention and has experience representing various individuals and businesses.
What is a patent? A patent is the right to exclude others from making, using or selling what you have invented. Like the legal description on a deed to real property, a patent outlines the boundaries of your intellectual property rights. It tells others what you own and where not to trespass. A patent is a public disclosure of your invention in exchange for your right to have a temporary monopoly on that invention. A patent puts the world on notice, marks your territory, and stakes your claim.
Do I need a patent? Obtaining a patent is a powerful strategy for preserving your business and increasing its value to prospective buyers. Without it, your competitors may consume revenue streams your business desperately needs and that you’ve worked hard to get. Patents may give you the ability to stop infringers. Patent infringement occurs when someone uses or sells your claimed invention without your permission. Licensing your inventions to third parties may allow you to collect royalties when third parties sell your products or services, all while you retain ownership of your discovery and potentially continue to sell it. Such a benefit can add an influx of much needed cash flow at minimal expense to you.
Are there different kinds of patents? Yes. There are three types of patents: utility, design and plant. The most common patent is a utility patent. Generally speaking, a utility patent protects how your discovery functions, its structure, its use, and how it is made. Design patents protect your invention’s ornamental design (i.e. visual characteristics). Design patents are usually less expensive than utilities but still give you a powerful way to stop knockoffs of your invention. Serious consideration may be given to obtaining both a design and utility patent. Plant patents protect distinct and new asexually reproduced plants, including cultivated sports, mutants, hybrids and newly found seedlings (except tuber propagated plants and plants found in an uncultivated state).
What is required to get a utility patent? To get a utility patent your invention must be new and useful. It must qualify as one of the four statutory categories—process, machine, manufacture or compositions of matter (or improvement of the same). You must be the actual inventor of the matter you claim. More than one person can be named as the inventor even though they have invented difference aspects of the invention.
How much does it cost to draft a patent application? The cost depends on the complexity of the invention and what type of patent application you desire.
How much does it cost to file a patent application? The filing fee that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) charges depends on many factors, including how many claims you have and whether you qualify as a Small Entity or Micro Entity. Click here http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/qs/ope/fee010114.htm to see what the USPTO charges to file a patent application.
What happens after you file a patent application? The USPTO assigns an examiner to review your application and to determine whether you should be granted a patent. You and the examiner may communicate back and forth regarding your application. This process is called patent prosecution. Eventually, if the examiner is satisfied that your application is in the proper form and that you have valid claims, he or she will issue you a patent. If not, you can appeal the examiner’s decision. Be prepared to pay additional attorney fees and USPTO costs during the patent prosecution processes.
How long does patent prosecution take? Patent prosecution can be a lengthy process and can taking anywhere from 1 to 3 years and beyond.
How long does a patent last? Utility and plant patents last 20 years from their earliest effective filing dates. Design patents only last 14 years from their earliest effective filing dates.
Are there any maintenance fees I need to pay after my application is granted? Yes, but only for utility patents. Maintenance fees on utility patents are due at 3.5 years, 7.5 years and 11.5 years from the issue date. There are no maintenance fees for design or plant patents.
What is a provisional patent application? A provisional patent application is a placeholder. You have 12 months from the date you file a provisional application to file a non-provisional application. If you don’t file a non-provisional application claiming priority to the provisional application within 12 months, your provisional application is automatically abandoned. If, on the other hand, you do file a non-provisional application within 12 months, the USPTO will treat the filing date of your non-provisional application as the date you filed your provisional application. Thus, a provisional application holds your place in line. Today, timing is everything. Congress recently passed the America Invents Act (AIA) which changed the law from a first-to-invent to a first-to-file system. Thus, today more than ever, provisional patent applications can be a crucial tool in securing your intellectual property rights.
It should be noted that only the things you properly disclose in your provisional patent application and later disclose in your non-provisional patent application will be given the earlier effective filing date. For example, if you disclose A, B and C in your provisional patent application and you then disclose A, B, C and D in your non-provisional patent application, only A, B and C will be afforded the earlier effective filing date. It is therefore important to draft a provisional patent in the broadest terms possible.
How much do provisional patent applications cost? Provisional patent applications are typically less expensive than non-provisional applications because they require fewer formalities.
Are patents only available in the United States? No. In fact, you must file either a foreign patent application or a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) patent application within 12 months of filing your United States patent application otherwise you may lose the right to protect your invention in foreign countries. If you plan on making, using or selling your invention anywhere outside the Unites States, it is essential that you consider timely filing a foreign or PCT patent application.
What is the difference between a patent, trademark and copyright? A patent is the right to exclude others from making, using or selling what you invented. A trademark protects the association of a particular “mark” (i.e. word, phrase, slogan, name, symbol, color, design, logo, thing, etc.) with your business. A copyright protects your original works of authorship (i.e. music, drawings, written text, photograms, etc.).
“An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.”
— Victor Hugo