Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Things You’ll Need:
- Patent Applications
- Patent Marketing Services
- Patent Searching Service
- Patent Software
Step1
Understand what a patent is. Briefly, a patent is a document issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) that grants its owner the right to keep others from making, using or selling an invention for a certain amount of time (currently 17 to 20 years).
Step2
Understand what a patent does. A patent gives its owner the right to file and recover damages in a lawsuit against any infringer (this can be a person or a company) that makes, uses or sells the invention, or any essential part of it, without first securing permission from the patent owner.
Step3
Determine what category of patent you need. Patents on useful inventions are called "utility patents" (by far the most common type). Nonfunctional designs and new varieties of plants may also qualify for patents.
Step4
Determine whether your invention is novel. For your invention to qualify for a patent, the PTO must believe that your invention is different from all previous inventions in some important way.
Step5
Determine whether your invention is "not obvious." When deciding whether to issue a utility patent, the PTO will ask, "At the time this invention was conceived, would someone skilled in this particular field consider the invention to be an unexpected or surprising development?"