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Getting a Patent "Important things to know" The patenting process requires many steps and about 2 years of work to accomplish. Most of the work is up front preparing the patent application, but making amendments to the patent application can also take up a great amount of time. Below we have listed the steps in getting a patent in the order they should be done. Also included is your investment to take part in this opportunity. Note that when we talk about "patents" we are talking about Utility Patents. These are the patents inventors what to get in order to protect there invention. There are some unscrupulous invention development companies that offer guaranteed patents for a reduced rate, but these companies are only giving you a design patent, which is not much more than a industrial strength trademark. Design patents protect the owner from anyone making a device that looks exactly like the "design" that was patented. Of course a small change in the shape of the case or the curve of the handle can allow them around your patent. Design patents cost only a few hundred dollars in PTO fees and require little work to file. Design patents have little or no value for you as an inventor wanting to protect your invention. Record Your Invention:The first thing you should do is record and date your invention on paper. It is a good idea to have a special hardbound notebook that you use to record your inventions. Only use permanently bound notebooks, that is, ones where the pages cannot be removed or inserted(i.e. Spiral bound notebooks). Have a friend or co-worker you trust read what you have written, then have them sign and date each page of the record. They should be able to understand what you have written and how the invention operates. Include the physical description of the invention's structure. By physical structure I mean how the parts are shaped, the material they are made from, and how they interact with other parts of the invention. Also include a description of how the invention operates. Describe the what the invention does and how the parts relate and interact with one another. You can also deposit your records with the patent office for $10 in their Disclosure
Document Program (DDP). Though a signed record of your inventions is probably sufficient,
you may what to us this service for peace of mind. If so, you can link to Patent Office (DDP) program for more information. Access Invention Value:You can never be 100% sure that your invention will sell. In fact you can never even be 50% sure that your invention will sell. Even the pros guess wrong 50% of the time. There are many factors which you have control over what can influence success, such as the actual design, marketing, packaging, advertising, functionality, and other factors. Even then the consumer must choose it. These uncertainties allow us to only get a fairly good idea of an untested invention's commercial feasibility. By simply evaluating a few key factors we can reduce the risk of producing a product that flops. The first thing you must do is know the market in which you plan to sell this invention. You need to know what has worked in the past and what has not. By looking at the market and asking a few questions you can get a good idea of what people are willing to pay for things in that market and what types of improvements they respond to. A wealth of information can be gotten from sales people in stores. Just find a store that sells products you would be competing with and ask a lot of question about why one product is better than another or one sells better than another. Next make a list of all the positive and negative marketing factors that pertain to your invention. Such things as lower cost, reduced number of parts, more functions, faster at doing a job, easier to use, safer, lighter, more durable, etc. are some positive factors that could influence your invention's marketing. To find the factors which influence the market your interested in, you will have to ask around. Most invention also have negative factors which could derail it. Things such as greater complexity, more expensive than similar products, possibly dangerous, legal barriers, does not function better than its competition, etc. could all make the invention not worth pursuing. If after checking the market it looks like you have an invention that solves a need at
a decent price, and doesn't have any fatal negatives then the next step is a patent
search. Patent Search:Once you have decided that it will be worth your time and money to pursue this invention the next step is to do a patent search. With a little time and effort you can do this yourself. Several search engines are on the Internet, below are two I like: If you want someone else to do the search for you there are many out there which will do a quick search for $200 to $300. We do professional patent searches for just $99, and an extensive search for $275. The extensive search must be done before we starting on a patent application. The extensive patent search is vital because this search is not just to see if your invention is already patented, but to also cross check patents though different sub-classifications for information on the "state of the art" and to see what patents need to be invented around.
We suggest doing the Professional Patent Search($99) first to be reasonably sure that
your invention is new, and then having the Extensive Patent Search($176) done if you
decide you want to get a patent. Both of these fees are applied to your fee for a patent,
but are not refundable should a patent not be granted. Co-Inventing:After we have the information from the patent search and you decide you want a patent
we will start to engineer improvements to your invention. These improvements will be
designed to make the invention easier to patent as well as improve its marketing value.
Your initial investment at this phase will be the total cost of getting the patent, which
will depend on what percentage ownership you choose (see below). If for example, you chose
the 25% ownership plan then you would pay $1,950 to InventionMakers less any patent search
fees you have already paid.. This investment is 100% refunded (except for the $275 for the
patent search) should it prove impossible to produce a patentable improvement to you
invention(unlikely). Patenting:Once a patentable design has been invented by InventionMakers we can move on to preparing the patent application. Preparing the application can take as long as 3 or 4 months depending on the complexity of the patent, though 1 month is more typical. Below is a chart that shows your costs depending on what percentage ownership in the patent you want.
*United States Patent & Trademark Office (US PTO) Issue Fee are not assessed unless the patent is allowed.It should be noted that government fees change frequently and may be different at the end of the patenting procedure than at the start. The filing Fee, prosecution Fees, and other Misc. fees are paid by InventionMakers and there are no other hidden costs. At the end of the patenting process the inventor will pay the Issue fee. This fee is only paid when the patent office has decided to issue your patent. You will pay this fee directly to the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). In most cases we will co-invent, engineer, and patent an invention for 0%, 25%, 50%, or
75% ownership depending what you want to invest. However, we reserve the right to
negotiate what percentage we are willing to work for if the invention has particular
interest to us. Your percentage ownership will never be below 25%. And of course your cost
is less for the lower percentage ownership of the patent as determined above. We may also
refuse to take on a project if for some reason we do not want our name associated with
that particular invention or because we determine the patent prospects in this area are
not very good. Example time-line (50% ownership):Week 1 - Patent search done ($99) Week 3 - Extensive patent search done($176) Week 5 - Start patenting process ($3,225, refunded if patent not issued) Week 5 - Start engineering development of invention improvement. Week 9 - Invention improvement completed. Begin preparing patent application. Week 14 - Patent application completed. Week 20 - Application becomes patent pending. Year 1 or 2 - First office action: amendments made.. Year 1 or 2 - Second office action: amendments made. Year 2 or 3 - Notice of Issuance - Issue Fee to PTO(presently $660 not refundable) Note: If the patent is not allowed you don't pay the Issue Fee and you get $3,225 refunded to you in this 50% ownership example. 6 Months Later - Approximately 3 to 6 months after you pay the Issue
Fee your patent issues and comes out in the Patent Gazette. You also receive an official
patent deed. Notice that we give you all our prices and costs up front. No hidden charges, or things
we don't tell you about. Other development companies don't provide many of the services we
do, and they don't tell you all their charges, fees, expenses, etc. They like to bleed you
slowly dollar by dollar. Be aware of these hidden costs. Often low up-front fees to file a
patent application hide the large expenses to be added during, the sometimes very
extensive, patent prosecution phase. There are some good invention development companies
out there, and I have included some of those I know are good, but none can get you a
patent anywhere near our prices with a 100% money back guarantee. We have taken the cost
and the risk out of patenting your invention or idea. Our Inventor:All our inventing and patenting is done by Gary Ragner. He has a background in Aerospace and Mechanical engineering with a Bachelors degree in Physics, and a Masters degree in Engineering. Mr. Ragner has been inventing and patenting for the past 7 years with a perfect track record, that is, he has received a patent for every invention he has applied for. Very few patent attorneys can say that. He has also cataloged an impressive list of 450+ inventions inventions of his own. Check out some of his patents:
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