Download - Patent basics
Basic PatentsJohn Meier
Patent and Trademark Resource Center Librarian
Pennsylvania State University
http://www.slideshare.net/johnmeier1/patent-basics
I am not a lawyer
Four types of intellectual property• Patents– Exclude others from making, using or selling their
invention• Copyright– Author’s original creative work
• Trademark– A logo or name for a product is protected in a
particular industry and geographic region• Trade secret– idea or invention protected by secrecy
Multiple Types of Patents• Utility patents - functional or structural novelty
Examples: Light bulb or the “comb-over”• Design patents - ornamental designs
Example: An athletic shoe sole design• Plant patents - varieties of plants
Example: Poinsettia plant named “Eckaddis”
Limited time
• Copyright = Life of the author + 70 years
• Utility patents = 20 years from filing date• Design patents = 14 years from issue date
• Trademarks = Renewed as long as product in the market
Criteria for patentability
• Utility - must be useful, or have a use
• Novelty - must be new, no “prior art” that is examples from before patent filing
• Non-obvious - the difference between existing prior art and the invention must be sufficiently great to deserve a patent
Novelty
Non-obvious or inventive step
examining whether or not the claimed solution to the objective technical problem is obvious for the skilled person in view of the state of the art in general.
How long to get a US patent?
• Application filed to first response by USPTO16 months (on average)• Total time to final decision on a patent25 months (on average)http://www.uspto.gov/dashboards/patents/main.dashxml
Times vary by area of technology
Accelerated examination is available for a fee
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How much does a patent cost?
Large Entity Fees- Starting at around $2000- Maintenance for 20 years $9000
Small Entity Fees- Starting at $1000 for a patent- Maintenance for 20 years $4500
Micro Entity (no more than 4 apps)- Starting as low as $500 for a patent
Subject to change frequently, only includes fees due to the USPTO
How much does it REALLY cost to get a patent?
• Provisional Patent Application $1600-3500• Conversion of Provisional to U.S. Patent Application
$5000-$10,000 in Attorney fees, $900 USPTO fee,possible $2500-$5000 PCT fee = $8400-$15,000
• First Office Action $2500-5000• Second Office Action $2500-5000• Drawing, Issue Fees and Publication $2000-4000• Maintenance Fee – 3.5 years $490• Maintenance Fee - 7.5 years $1240• Maintenance Fee – 11 years $2055Average cost around $20,000 with attorney fees but highly variable
Free resources to help you
• Philadelphia Patent Pro Bono Programhttp://www.artsandbusinessphila.org/pvla/patentprobono.asp
• Penn State Law IP Clinichttps://pennstatelaw.psu.edu/practice-skills/clinics/intellectual-property-clinic/ip-clinic-client-application
• Penn State Small Business Development Centerhttp://sbdc.psu.edu/
Parts of a Patent
The “Front Page”
• Patent Number• Filing Date and Issue Date• Title of the Invention• Inventor or inventors • Assignee - Owner• Classification - IPC, USPC,
CPC• References Cited• Representative Drawings
Parts of a PatentThe Disclosure
• Background of the Invention
• Brief Summary of the Invention
• Detailed Description of the Invention
• Claims– Define the boundary
of legal protection
Patent search strategiesClassification Searching
G08G 1/0112SECTION G = physicsCLASS G08 = signaling instrumentsSUBCLASS G08G = traffic control systemsGROUP G08G 1/00 = for road vehiclesSUBGROUP 1/0112 = “Floating car data sources for measuring and analyzing traffic movement…”
Search Tools
• U.S. PTO Website – Free database of U.S. patents – limited searching
http://patft.uspto.gov • Google Patents – Full text searching of all patents
along with PDF files for downloadinghttp://www.google.com/patents • esp@cenet – European patent office website that
provides a search engine of worldwide patentshttp://worldwide.espacenet.com/
Finding Trademarks
• Why search trademarks?– Discover if a word or mark is already registered
• Search Tools http://tess2.uspto.gov – TESS and TEAS – free databases from the U.S.
trademark office for trademarks and applications– You can do a visual or a text based search• Design Codes are used for image searching• Use wildcards “*” and “$” to find spelling variations
Resources available at the PTRC
• John Meier [email protected]@johnmeier1https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmeier1
• Books on patents and searching– Patent Pending in 24 Hours– Patent it Yourself– Patent Searching made easy
http://guides.libraries.psu.edu/patents