Can You Patent Your Invention? Part Two
This is a transcript of a podcast posted July 9, 2006.
 We’re speaking with patent attorney David Pressman, the author of the world’s best-selling guide Patent It Yourself as well as the co-author of other Nolo books, including Patent Pending in 24 Hours, The Inventor’s Notebook, How to Make Patent Drawings, and Nolo’s Patent’s for Beginners. This is the second installment of a two-part interview with David.
NOLO: David, since you can never get a patent just by filing a provisional patent application, what good is a provisional patent application?
DAVID PRESSMAN: Well, you’re exactly right; a provisional patent application doesn’t give you a right to get anything. It’s actually a misnomer, because it’s not an application for anything; it’s really just a way of recording your invention, so that later you can go back to this date when you filed the provisional application, and use that date to antedate references that the patent office cites against you, or you can win an interference if someone invents the same invention and there’s a proceeding in the patent office to determine who was first.
Another advantage of the provisional application is that you can call your invention “patent pending,” but remember -- it’s very important to remember -- that within a year after you file the provisional, you have to file a regular patent application, or else the provisional will be lost and discarded forever.
NOLO: A U.S. patent can only be used to stop infringements within the United States, so when is it worthwhile to file for foreign patents?
DAVID PRESSMAN: Foreign patent filing is extremely expensive, because the value of the dollar has gone down, and the foreign patent agents charge quite a bit of money. So, if you have a very valuable invention, and you can afford to pay for it, or if someone else is willing to pay for it, such as a licensee or someone else who buys a part of your invention, then you can foreign-file if your invention has a market overseas.
In other words, if your invention has a market in Europe, then you can file in the European patent office, but it costs about six or seven thousand dollars to file there, or in Japan it costs about the same. You can file in Canada for a couple thousand dollars. But in any of these countries there are ongoing substantial expenses, so you have to be prepared for that, and you have to be sure that your invention has enough potential there to make it worthwhile, and that you’ll get much more back then you paid in.
|
