How to Submit Patents
According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) a patent grants the "right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling" the patented item within the United States. Patents may be issued for inventions, designs, improvements on existing devices, and for some genetically engineered organisms and computer programs. A novel and useful combination of existing technology may also be patentable. The invention must be useful (meaning it has to actually do something specific). Discoveries of a scientific nature or things that already exist in nature are not patentable. The process to submit patents requires an intensive evaluation of the innovation. Legally you don't have to hire a patent agent or attorney, but in practice this is a necessity.
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Exhaustive description/specifications of the innovation
- Patent attorney or agent
- Fees
Instructions
-
-
1
File a provisional patent application once the invention has been developed and tested. A provisional patent application establishes the inventor's claim for 12 months, allowing time for patent searches and the filing and review of the patent application.
-
2
Perform a preliminary patent search. This can be done in person at the USPTO archive facility in Arlington, Virginia or online (see link below). The preliminary search is limited to determining whether or not a prior patent contains the same essential idea.
-
-
3
Consult with your patent agent or attorney as he/she performs an in-depth patent search of related patents. Patent agents and attorneys combine legal expertise with technical training. He/she will examine the invention and then do a through search of related patents and determine which elements are covered by other patents and which are novel (and so patentable) ideas.
-
4
Prepare the non-provisional patent application. This is the full patent application and has four parts. First is a discussion of "prior art" (relevant inventions or ideas already in existence. Next comes a summary of the innovation and the "preferred embodiment," a term meaning the proposed form or design of the invention. The fourth section is the most important: claims. In the claims section the inventor provides detailed technical data to describe exactly what the innovation does and how it does it.
-
5
Submit the completed application. It will be reviewed by a patent examiner at the USPTO, who either accepts or rejects the application. Usually it is initially rejected along with a description of issues the patent examiner has uncovered. The application is then revised to address these concerns and resubmitted.
-
6
Remit the patent fee to complete the process of obtaining a patent. Once granted, a patent is good for 20 years. The USPTO does levy maintenance fees which you must pay periodically over the 20 year period to keep the patent in force.
-
1
