Patents

Chase Pruitt, MGT 386, December 11, 2008

When someone gets a great idea for an invention of some sort and is serious about making it a reality, then they should seriously consider filing for a patent. Wikipedia states that, “a patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to an inventor or his assignee for a fixed period of time in exchange for a disclosure of an invention”. So basically a patent is a legal right that gives the creator protection from other people who might try to mimic or copy the invention. Legally filing for a patent is not necessary when inventing something but would be highly recommended. This is just to protect your work from being copied and sold by someone else before you had a chance to claim it as your own. Obtaining a patent can be expensive and usually requires the services of a patent attorney who can walk you through the steps of evaluating your product and assist you in the patent acquisition process.

There are twelve steps in acquiring a US patent according to enzinearticles.com. The first step in this process is preparation and submission of the idea in written form to designated company managers. This is simply to get all your ideas and patent proposal in an organized written form. The second step is to have your proposal reviewed by the designated company mangers of the disclosed idea or innovation for potential commercial worth and value. This step is just so that the managers can decide if they feel the idea warrants a patent license. Thirdly, if the patent council is still interested in the idea then they will draft a summary evaluation of the disclosed idea or innovation of its technical working essentials and assess whether these essentials might meet the patent merit requirements of utility and novelty. Next, if the panel continues on with the procedure then it’s up to the company managers to make a review and decide whether and how to proceed with commercial development of the idea or innovation and also whether or not to seek patent protection for the innovation based on patent counsel’s summary evaluation. Following these steps comes a very important one in which there will be an in-person meeting between the inventors, patent counsel, and company mangers in order to determine and decide what is or should be the broadest possible scope for the innovation in commercial and non-commercial terms. This meeting will also consist of discussion topics such as detailing and characterizing inventorship, the number and types of commercial formats, kinds of variations, preferred embodiments and minimum essential parts, operation limits and optimal use ranges. Needless to say, this is an extremely import step in the patent process because of the magnitude of topics being discussed in a face to face environment. Once all these details get ironed out, then it is time to prepare and submit to the patent council a complete and full written description of the invention prepared by the inventors which will provide sufficient technical detail, relevant drawings, useful background information, a listing of unexpected benefits and desirable advantages, and the relevant prior art for patent text purposes. Once everything gets organized, drafted, and submitted, the patent council will prepare and distribute a first draft text to the named inventors and designated company managers. Upon receiving this, the inventors and designated company managers will read and revise the document and send it back to the patent council. Now, with the input and revisions of both parties, a second and final draft will be constructed. A receipt consisting of the final needed changes will be given by the patent counsel to the inventors and will be submitted to the U. S. Patent Office. Finally, a completed submission of the fully approved patent application manuscript, supporting formal documents and requisite fee payments can be sent to the U.S. Patent office.