Rich Goldstein (00:04):
Let’s talk about the patent process. Once you’ve determined that what you have is novel non-obvious and worthy of a patent, then the next step toward getting a patent is to file a patent application.
Rich Goldstein (00:20):
You can file a patent application. The application needs to be prepared and preparing a patent application means getting together information about what the invention is. What’s different about the invention and why it’s worthy of a patent. A typical patent application can be 20, 30, even 40 pages in length. And the point of all of this documentation is to begin the process of convincing the patent office examiner to grant you the patent. So filing the application is the first official step in the patent process. And it’s important to know that not all patent applications are created equal. If you really want to protect your idea, you’re really hanging all of the hope on the strength of this patent application. A poorly written patent application can sometimes result in a patent being granted, but it wouldn’t be a good patent. It wouldn’t be a strong patent. Um, it wouldn’t be one that you could use to actually stop people from stealing your invention.
Rich Goldstein (01:20):
And so a patent application is only as good as it is well-written and the priority that you get, the priority that’s established for you as the first inventor of this product, when it’s filed is only as good as the invention is well expressed in that patent application. So the quality of the patent application is critical to you getting a strong patent and, you know, we’re a patent firm. So it would seem natural that we would say that you need a patent attorney to write a patent application, but it’s just the truth. While there might be elements of your journey that you can do yourself and that you should do yourself. Writing a patent application is the most critical. It’s the most technical and requires the most skill of anything in this entire process. And the one thing that’s, that’s truly going to give you a chance of getting a strong patent, getting strong patent protection for your idea is a patent application. That’s been written correctly with a full understanding of what your invention is with a full understanding of what’s distinct about your invention and also a full understanding of what your goals are for this invention for this product. So that the patent that you end up getting is perfectly appropriate for what you need in your circumstance.
Rich Goldstein (02:44):
Now assuming that your application has been prepared and that it is everything that it needs to be. It’s then filed with the us patent office on the day that it’s filed, the invention becomes patent pending, and you probably seen products mock patent pending before. And what this means is that the application has been filed and the inventor is waiting for the patent office to review the application and grants
Speaker 1 (03:07):
The patent [inaudible].
Rich Goldstein (03:12):
And when you’re in pen patent pending status, it becomes a bit of a waiting game as far as getting the patent itself. Um, it’s going to be assigned to an examiner and, um, you know, and then you’re going to wait for the application to be examined by that, um, patent examiner. Um, and the patent examiners job then is to review your application, do his or her own prior art research, um, do his or her own comparisons, and then make his, our own judgment as to whether your invention fits the criteria of patentability. Does it have proper patentable subject matter? Um, is it different enough to be worthy of a patent? Um, and also is it written correctly? Does it meet all the formal rules of the patent office as how patent applications need to be written?
Rich Goldstein (04:08):
Assuming that the review by the patent examiner is favorable, you’re going to be issued. What’s known as a notice of allowance. And when the notice of allowance is issued by the patent office, they’re effectively saying that you’ve been approved for a patent. Then once you pay certain issuance fees, the patent is going to be granted. And, um, it looks like this. Um, and on the other hand, sometimes the examiner’s review isn’t that favorable and the examiner might initially reject the application. If the application is rejected, though, the examiner has to give reasons why it’s been rejected and then you and I can review the reasons for rejection and determine whether they can be overcome. We found that the majority of rejections can be overcome and that an initial rejection is it’s not uncommon at all. In fact, you should expect an initial rejection, uh, and that will likely be able to overcome it after any of the reasons for the rejection have been overcome in writing to the patent office.
Rich Goldstein (05:04):
Then typically the examiner will remove the rejections and issue a notice of allowance. Again, after the appropriate issuance fees are paid, the United States patent will be issued. So that’s the patent process. In a nutshell, once the patents issued, you have the right to exclude other people from making, using, or selling your invention within the United States. And this is a right that you can keep to yourself. You can sell to someone else, or you could license to a company who wants to make that product. One other note is that a us patent is effective in the United States and its territories. If you want protection in all the countries, then you would need to obtain patents in those countries as well. Uh, and there are certain procedures we can go through to kind of buy you time to make those decisions about what countries or what other countries you want might want protection. But the real key is to file the U S application first, and then we’ll have at least a year to make all of those decisions. In the next video, we’re going to talk about common concerns that many clients had before they came to work with us.
