If you’ve started your own business or come up with an idea that you think is great – maybe even world-changing – the next thing you need to do is obtain the legal rights to your product. This process is called ‘patenting’, and it’s a type of intellectual property law which gives you the legal ownership of your invention. It also prevents other people from stealing your idea and profiting off your work.
Prepare Your Application
To apply for a patent in the US, you must complete various forms and agreements. The first step is to complete a provisional application; a non-provisional application will follow up within a year.
The purpose of the provisional application is to define what type of payment you need (utility, design, or plant). It is a type of pre-application which can mark the applicant as ‘patent pending’ and establish an early filing date for the non-provisional application.
The non-provisional licence or Regular Patent Application (RPA) must be filed within one year of the provisional application. It is possible to apply yourself, but USPTO generally recommends using an attorney or registered legal professional. Hiring professionals is especially useful for larger businesses as they can relieve the complex admin side of applications by filing and maintaining forms such as the IDS (Information Disclosure Statement).
Prepare Your Proof
To complete your application, you will have to demonstrate why your invention is useful and unique to you.
You must be able to:
- Demonstrate how to make and use the invention
- Explain why the invention is unique (i.e. prove it is not a copy of another product)
- Precisely describe what unique features of the invention should be patented.
Prior Art and Feature Illustrations
You will also need to have a drawing of the features you are claiming patents on. You can hire external parties to prepare these at a cost. There are strict rules on how these should look and what materials can be used to draw them, so it is often best to use a professional artist who has experience preparing these specific illustrations.
‘Prior Art’ must also be included with your application. Legally, Prior Art is part of an Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) and has the potential to create blocks in the application process if not identified.
According to the US Patent Act, an inventor is entitled to a patent unless “the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention….”
Anything that has already been published or patented resembles your invention could stop you from getting your patent unless you can prove that your idea is separate and distinct from the prior product. You can use public resources such as USPTO’s Public Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) to cross-reference your ideas.
If you find a product that bears many similarities to your own, you may need to rework your invention to make it more unique to avoid this issue.
Having an attorney to help you with these complicated legal steps can help you avoid roadblocks in your application process, especially for larger companies with multiple patents to file – it can be a time-consuming and confusing process that delays your application.
Narrative Proof
The narrative proof is largely the story of how your invention came into existence. If you can tell the story of how you made your invention, it is a form of proof that the idea is original. This part of the application should include:
- A description of the invention
- Your prior art research
- The reason you made your invention
- A detailed explanation of how you made the invention (how it was constructed, what materials were used, and how it works)
The Independent And Dependent Claims
A written claim is required to request the patent, and this claim should be written in sentence fragments, starting with capital letters and ending in one period. A statement of an independent claim is a wider description of the invention, followed by a dependent claim – a series of descriptive remarks and drawings of the invention broken down bit by bit.
Take The Oath
The application will also require you to include a signed and notarised oath declaring that you believe yourself to be the original inventor of your product. These oaths can be found online and are important for claiming responsibility for your creation.
You will also be asked to fill in some basic bibliographic and contact information.
Pay Your Fees
All patent applications require a fee to be processed. To avoid delays, pay your fee as soon as possible.
Following Your Application
Once you have filed your application, USPTO will begin cross-referencing and checking your patent. Due to the complex nature of the work, it can take up to two or three years to get a response.
If you are issued a patent, the USPTO will give you a ‘notice of allowance’ – this means that you will be issued your patent once you pay the required fees. Do this as soon as possible to avoid your application being revoked or cancelled.
Once you have paid your issue fee, you can expect your patent within three months.