The American Invents Act changed the why and the who of patent applications. Along with dozens of other changes to the intellectual property platform, the major advance (or setback depending on who you ask) is the First Inventor to File (FITF) policy that was implemented on March 16th 2013. Ever since intellectual property laws came […]
A poor man’s patent is not a good way to try to protect your invention. It does not give an inventor the same type of protection as a patent application does, and will not likely be useful to monetize your invention.
Purpose of Patents A patent is important because it can help safeguard your invention. It can protect any product, design or process that meets certain specifications according to its originality, practicality, suitability, and utility. In most cases, a patent can protect an invention for up to 20 years. This time period starts soon as you […]
Now that you have done all the leg work and have successfully acquired your patent, you may be wondering if you should push forward into production and venture down that sometimes daunting road, or if you should put a price tag on your invention and sell it to the highest bidder? If you choose to […]
There is not one way to determine if a patent has expired. It takes some research, and if anyone tells you “it looks like it may have expired,” run. They don’t know what they’re talking about. Here are some ways to help you determine if it’s “still alive.” Look at the front page – If […]
T or F? Improvements to old technologies may be patented. True. You actually can get a patent on an improvement to an old technology as long as the improvement is something new and it’s not just an obvious improvement—that’s the key. In fact, most technologies are just improvements to things that have come before. T […]
Magazines, books, comics, clothing, and a ton of other products have specialized trademarks on them. These trademarks are used to acknowledge the source of the products. For written works, art, and anything in the artistic spectrum, copyright laws apply. Patents are different from trademarks or copyright because they deal solely with an invention of some […]
Trademarks, copyrights, and patents are all available to the public upon request. You do not have to be a business owner or part of a major company to apply for one of them. You must have something unique that is not a copy of someone else’s work in order to be granted a patent, copyright, […]
Do you know what Patent No. 6,630,507 is? It’s the patent that the government gave itself for the use of medical marijuana. Yes. You read this right. The government who voiced so strongly that marijuana has no positive medical affect constituting the legalization of the drug. So if that is indeed the case, why are […]
