A utility patent application can be filed provisionally or unprovisionally. The non-provisional application establishes the filing date of your patent application and begins the examination process. Your patent application will be examined by the USPTO. A provisional application only establishes your filing date and expires automatically after one year. You may file a provisional application when you are not ready to enter your application into the regular examination process. A provisional application establishes a filing date at a lower cost for a first patent application filing in the United States. A provisional application allows the term "Patent Pending" to be applied to your invention.
In the U.S., the inventor has a "first to invent" claim which is different from other patenting organizations throughout the world who generally utilize "first to file." Debate over this issue, and which model best influences economic development is ongoing. Some are concerned that a change in patent rights may harm the small startup and benefit the incumbents with deeper pockets. You can read more about this topic.
Let IP Street help you with your concept search. Once you have drafted the description and claims of the invention, you can utilize our multi-word patent search to see relevant patent documents that have similar textual relationships. This document relevancy search can help you have a better understanding of the patent draft so you can appropriately revise and rewrite to maximize the claim scope. These patent valuation and search tools will help you better develop the patent analytics and potential duration of a patent.
Laws of nature: Galileo would not be able to patent his findings from his experiments at the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Physical phenomena: Patent law classifies physical phenomena as products of nature. Thus, if your invention occurs in nature, it is a physical phenomenon and cannot be patented. Abstract ideas: Abstract ideas are concepts like pure mathematics and algorithms. You cannot patent a formula. However, you can patent an application of that formula. Thus, while you cannot patent a mathematical formula that produces nonrepeating patterns, you can patent paper products that use that formula to prevent rolls of paper from sticking together. Literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works: These can be Copyright protected. Inventions, which are considered not useful or possible: For example, the USPTO will not issue a patent on a perpetual motion machines; or offensive to public morality.
Although anyone can claim to inventor or create something (e.g., Al Gore created the Internet), the reality is that an idea needs to be carefully considered in context of the law. If you are serious about protecting your invention, you should contact a patent attorney or patent agent. Applying for a patent, and its subsequent patent prosecution process, does cost money. You may see ads for low-cost services to file a patent on your behalf. Such solutions are viable if your goal is to boast to your friends that you patented something. However, if you have real-world business ambitions, it is imperative that the person writing the claims of your patent is a well-qualified lawyer. The adage "you get what you pay for" is very true in the intellectual property community. Realistically, a single patent is going to minimally cost you around $10K for the application fees, legal fees to write the claims, and so on. You want to find a legal professional that is a subject matter expert in your domain (whether it is IT, manufacturing, mechanical engineering, biotech).
(18) Words.
