Step 2: Apply for a Provisional Patent
A few months ago I wrote an article about ideas, ones that can grow into big things. I received overwhelming response from readers in the same boat as me - tons of ideas and no clue where to go next. Today I shall propose the next step: applying for a provisional patent.
Is it for you?
First off, what is a provisional patent application anyway? While a patent protects a mature and developed invention, a provisional patent
is a type of national application for patent filed in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), but which does not mature into an issued patent unless further steps are taken by the applicant.
The key point there being that a provisional patent may not become a real issued patent until you are able to create a working prototype, as exemplified by this part in the provisional application Wikipedia page:
One popular use of a provisional application is to document and “lock in” potential patent rights while attempting to obtain sponsors for further development (and for more expensive patent applications). This tactic may permit an inventor to defer major patent application costs until the commercial viability (or futility) of the invention becomes apparent.
A provisional patent will help protect your idea for 12 months, while you work on developing it. It is particularly helpful in the case that another inventor attempts to patent a similar/identical invention and your filing date is before the other guy’s. However, patents (provisional and non-provisional) are not for you if your idea isn’t an invention or something new. If you have an idea to create a better Facebook, you can’t patent that since it has already been done regardless of whether or not you think you can do a better job. However, if you have a particular, unique feature that hasn’t been done before, that might be worth looking into.
If you’re not sure whether your idea is patentable and already done, you’ll want to hire an lawyer or service to perform a patent search for you.
What’s Involved
Last week I attended a meetup of the Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs, where I learned about copyright and intellectual property law, among other things. A speaker there had mentioned a website called LegalZoom that makes it easy to apply for provisional patents, register a company, trademark and other similar legal tasks. I will admit that the site looks and sounds cheesy, but apparently it works well.
I went through the process of applying for a provisional patent for one of my ideas and it only took about 10 minutes.
Fields blanked out for obvious reasons.
Then I got to the part where I needed to pay $299 ($199 for provisional patent, $100 for government filing), so I’ll leave this for another time when my pockets aren’t empty. I just wanted to point out that taking the next step and protecting your idea while you develop it doesn’t have to be expensive. LegalZoom offers a great service when compared to what it would cost through a lawyer ($2,000+). However, LegalZoom offers the option to have a lawyer look over your application at an additional fee; an option I would highly recommend.
If you have ever gone through the provisional/non-provisional patent application process, I’d love to hear about your experience so please leave a comment.
Disclosure: I am not a lawyer (IANAL).
Having been through the process of establishing a patent in the US, don’t underestimate how detailed, dull and expenisve the process is!!
What you suggest is a great start - but it is just that, the start of a very long and expensive process :-)
Well this is just a provisional patent, I don’t think it is as crazy a process as a real patent, which can take years. Did you ever end up getting your patent approved?
IANAL either but just be careful if you are employed when you start this process. Some companies in the US (if not all, see aforementioned acronym) will feel with the help of their lawyers that your patentable idea is actually theirs regardless of where you came up with the idea.
They’ll generally only care if it is a patent related to their sector, but you should be careful.
@Matto - that’s definitely something to be careful as well and when you apply for a provisional patent they ask you if it was developed while you were employed elsewhere. It’s an area that can become a huge discrepancy should your company want to claim ownership.
What I didn’t get from the FAQ is whether a non-US citizen can apply for a provisional patent?
LegalZoom is actually good to work with. I used them to form an LLC for consulting, after given a recommendation on them from another consultant who had used them. They appear to have a broad range of services: I was not aware that they dealt with patenting until I read your article.
Another resource that could (?) prove useful is DocStoc, mentioned on TechCrunch today:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/26/1000-docstoc-invites-for-techcrunch-readers/
You might want to pay a visit and get one of their 1,000 invites to this before they get gone. I signed up using the code and it looks “interesting.” I found several documents there that were of interest from a business perspective. There are probably some really good ones buried within the site … I have searched it much yet.
A software patent?
Are you sure about this?
I think that you might be going the wrong way, but it is just me. Software patents are innovation stoppers. Not the other way around. I do understand your motives, trust me, but there is nothing that will keep your competition from providing a better product than you, doing the same thing, even if you think that yours is protected by a software patent. Absolutely nothing. Everything depends on the interest the competition has and whether it is geared enough to produce a viable alternative.
A software patent is inherently evil.
Now reflect upon this. Do you really think, that given an adequate amount of manpower and manhours, it is impossible to outdo in concept, performance and implementation any other attempt at making a better mousetrap, release it out in the open, without a “patent”, with you as a result getting out of business?
Everything can be re - implemented. Really everything. In different programming languages, in different environments and platforms. And since this is usually an evolutionary step, it can be done in such a way that you are left out of business and stay that way without being able to even spell a word back.
Since you mentioned wikipedia, I will also use the same source.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patent#Perceived_negative_effects
There is a big list of issues with software patents. If you do not belong to single - word or three - letter - acronym software companies, reconsider whether you should be filing for a software patent instead of establishing prior use and copyright of your mental gems.
If you really want to get something out of software, there are people who did something great out of it, got something great out of it as well, without filing a patent.
OSX could have never existed without the *BSDs. Just an example, despite not my favorite one.
Think about it before you base years to come on the notion that a software patent keeps “bad apples” away. Yes it may be convenient for some things, but software is one of these fruits that ripe early and thus can easily rot.
Just think about it, I am not saying that you are wrong; prove to yourself that you are right.