Patents are a big part of making an invention profitable, so many people need one. However, there are three or four (depending on if you include provisional as a kind of patent) types of patents and getting the right type can save you a lot of bother and money. The decision on what sort of patent you need can be complicated. However, most people applying for patents want a utility patent, so you can start there.
The Utility Patent
There are patents for plants that you discover and reproduce asexually. If you have an original design for a manufactured article, you can patent the design.
However, if you want a patent for the use of an invention, you want a utility patent. This gives you a 20-year monopoly on selling, using, manufacturing, or importing your invention. You can get them for a process, an improvement on an existing thing, a machine, a composition of matter, and a manufactured item. These items would include drugs, medical devices, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
What Can Get A Utility Patent
The majority of the patents acquired are for utility patents. The thing only has to meet the requirements.
The first requirement, according to 35 U.S.C. § 102 (a), is that it is ‘novel.’ That means that people don’t use it in this country and it isn’t patented or described anywhere. You are generally allowed to call a thing novel if you patent it within a year, even if you started using it within that year.
Another thing that your invention needs to get patented is to be actually useful. It can’t be a hypothetical machine or something no one can use in the real world. Perpetual motion machines, for one, would be out.
Your invention’s usefulness must be specific, substantial, and credible. In other words, the improvement has to help do a particular thing and help in a big way. Your average user must be able to identify why it is useful based on its inherent characteristics.
Like all patented things, it can’t be something a person with an average skill level in its field would think of immediately. That is a tricky aspect to litigate, requiring a lot of knowledge of what your invention is supposed to do, but it is an important point.
Provisional vs. Non-provisional
A provisional application gives you an extra year to get your work together. Basically, it’s a patent that you file with the USPTO that doesn’t have a formal patent claim, information about prior art, or an oath. It costs less to file, and it is designed to let American inventors put an earlier invention date on something that people in other countries may be working on.
You will have to file for a formal utility patent within the 12 months that the provisional patent lasts, but you will be able to put a ‘patent pending’ sticker on your invention when you sell it within that year.
Getting The Patent Right
You don’t want your patent to be a secret. Your paperwork should include a complete description of your invention that would allow a person with an average familiarity with the processes involved to make your invention.
There will be other things that your non-provisional utility patent should have. These are:
- Fees
- Transmittal letter
- Specification (this is the written description of the invention, how the invention is made, and what the invention claims to do)
- Application datasheet
- Executed oath or declaration
You may also need a drawing, a computer listing, or a nucleotide and amino acid sequence listing.
Getting all these parts of the patent right can go a long way to make your invention profitable. If you just invented something and you want help getting a patent, contact us.