Patent Information

i'm in the process of filing for a second patent right now... but my company has alot of patent attorneys that do most of the paperwork and research for us. i know that its a VERY expensive process so my suggestion to you is to do alot of work up front to be sure that it is in fact a patentable process/application/device befor you spend money on filing. i highly recommend, however, doing this through a patent attorney since they will know exactly what you need to do.

 

I too have patented a medical device. First thing you should do is your own search on the www.uspto.gov website to see if there is already a product like the one you would like to patent. Make sure you use any possible description in the search box. After completing this exhausting search, and you haven't found a patent for your product, speak to a patent attorney. To insure that you do not waste money on a patent application first you may have the patent attorney do a search as well. This can range up to $2500.00 on average. If nothing is found you can do 1 of 2 things. Apply for a provisional patent ( cheapest route ) or apply directly for a patent. By doing a provisional patent first it decreases your initial out of pocket expenses but also allows you to shop your product to companies while having a "patent pending" status. If you apply for a provisional patent first you have 1 year to file for a patent to keep the protection of your original provisional patent filing date. It is bascially piggybacking the new patent on top of your provisional patent. Hope this helps.

Dan

 

Perfect and simple explanation. This is exactly how I went about with mine (went the Provisional (Poor-Man's Patent) way.) I had about 5K stored off for paperwork and expenses and was able to come away with a good bit left over that was funnelled into sales travel and some unforseen development/production expenses. Good luck!

 

I have not thoroughly compared the USPTO.gov website and the website: http://freepatentsonline.com , but I am very impressed with the search engine of the latter. Sign-up first, check out the syntax page: http://freepatentsonline.com/syntax.html , and then try the advanced search. Good luck!!