How to Patent an Invention

You have come up with a brilliant idea! It could be revolutionary for a particular niche. Now you want to protect your idea, so that you can make money from it. What do you need to do? Steps: 1. Write down your idea. The act of writing will force you to define your invention, break down the invention into its elements, and to think about variations of the invention. Written materials produced as a result will also be helpful for preparing a patent application. 2. Conduct a patent search to help you figure out whether your invention is novel. If every element of your invention is disclosed in a single publication, your idea will not be entitled to a patent. 3. Decide on whether you wish to file a provisional or a non-provisional patent application. The provisional application is associated with relatively inexpensive filing fees but serves merely to "hold your place in line" at the patent office for up to one year. If you do not file a non-provisional application within that year, all your rights to your provisional application will be abandoned. Provisional applications are often prepared by nonprofessionals. They can be informal in format but must include sufficient detail regarding your invention to allow those of ordinary skill in the art to practice your invention. Anything absent from a provisional application will not be entitled to protection, so it is better to err on the side of over-inclusiveness. Non-provisional applications typically require more work. The claims of a patent application set forth the metes and bounds of your invention and define your legal rights in the invention. Thus, this is the part where professional experience really shines through. If you have any money to spend in preparing your patent, this is the place to spend it. An experienced professional can come up with claims that the ordinary person will likely never think of. 4. Decide whether you are going to have a professional, e.g., a patent agent or a patent attorney, draft your patent application or try to do it yourself. Typically, a professionally prepared application will be of a higher quality. Once the claims are drafted, the detailed description part of the application can be prepared using the claims as an outline. This is a very detailed description of what your invention is all about. Many inventions need drawings. The numbered drawings will illustrate the mechanisms, processes or procedures necessary to practice your invention. that are the heart of your invention. You will need to refer to the numbers of specific parts of your drawings in your description. 5. File your patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office. The fees are shown on the fee schedule at the patent office website. A non-provisional application will be examined. The examination process is akin to a contract negotiation with a patent examiner. During examination, the examiner will typically ask for clarification of your invention or for a narrowing of the scope of protection sought. In addition, there no guarantee that any application will eventually be granted as a patent. The examination process will vary in duration depending on the nature of your invention and schedule of the patent office. During the "patent pending" phase of your application, you may try to sell or exploit your invention without fear of losing any rights to the invention. originated by: Dee, Versageek, Ohmyohmy, Anonymous Source: www.wikihow.com