Posted on 07/10/2015 6:42:06 PM PDT by lafroste
Did you copyright and trademark first?
Good for you for seeking professional legal advice. It is usually worth the money. BUT, make sure you have a representation agreement with any attorney you speak to. You don’t want that guy walking off with your idea.
San Diego just dumped 1/2 mil. gal. I want to put 10k storage on my hill. How long does water last?
Depending on the nature of your invention, it may be a valid path to skip all the IP junk and start selling, make a buck and then stop when you get a cease and desist letter. This is a valid strategy that works for some things.
I started a graphics biz in 1976, became well aware of copyright laws (poor mans patent). Copyright is yours, whether you file or not. If someone knocks you off (logo t-shirts), you can get total confiscation of product and assets that produced it. If you know someone overseas is knocking you off, a $.50 stamp/letter to every custom house in the US will lock the cargo down (no fun for the guy who paid for it before shipping).
Trademarks only issued on items all ready produced. I will trademark some of my items, to secure/market the corresponding website.
Ok.
I’ve got a dozen or so patentable ideas.
Where do we start?
There is s good tutorial on uspto.gov that is about 35 minutes on how to get started. I did all the up front searches and wrote the patent myself and then took it to an attorney who rewrote it correctly. Very interesting.
I never did a design that used an elevated storage tank for potable water. There are still some water towers down here, mostly at older water treatment plants, but I don’t know if they’re actually used for water storage anymore. The only water tower design I did was to provide fire flow for an old elementary school that was being completely remodeled and the old water mains serving the site and surrounding neighborhood were too small to provide the needed water. But, when the school board saw the cost of it versus upsizing about a half mile of main they went with upsizing the main. So I never actually got to complete the design. And of course, just for fire flow, no one cares about the water being old, so that wasn’t a consideration.
Before even contacting an attorney go tot he PTO website. Read their basic literature on the process to file. It is good info. Then do a search on the topics you are thinking about. Read a few patens even if they do not pertain directly to your invention. But read them to get an idea of how patents are written, what information must be provided, and the types of diagrams used. Probably 4 hours of reading or so will do.
Pay attention to the Micro-Entity rules. That is where you will save boatloads of money. Regular corporation pay thousands to file. Micro-Entity, a few bucks. Pay attention to the process. Lots of protections in the process alone.
Some books may help. One by NoLo is titled “Patent Yourself”. Great book. It is kept updated with the latest rules.
Then, if you are technical writing literate, write up your patent. If not, seek an attorney. They will hire out the work. Not cheap. You can expect to pay north of $10,000 just to create a patent. (Patents by big corporations cost in excess of $50,000 to create and maintain. Many I do cost in excess of $250,000 to create and maintain. There is lots of verification and lawyers involved.)
I am not a lawyer. I am an engineer, holding numerous patents. All of the patent lawyers (and I work with big corporate counsel types regularly) tell me that the NDA is more powerful than the patent because it is a binding contract, with well defined legal power. Therefore, it is relatively simple to enforce.
Not so with a patent!
Buy a bound journal of blank pages, have a notary sign the inside pages. Put down your ideas by sketch/description. Notarize next blank page. Do NDA’s if you need to go there for pricing info. I did US bids on my farm related product, which were too high to launch a wholesale effort. I did China, and they were 1/4 the US cost. Sad, but I may have to consider the option.
It is actually quite a problem here in NC. Because the water system upgrades are usually financed by Fed grants, localities tend to “embellish” their projected growth rates. The result of all this is a water system with a lot more capacity than the area needs. Thus tank turnover is too low, a regulatory limit is reached, and the water must be dumped and replaced. This further taxes the aquifers (source) and they are getting dangerously low. I originally conceived and designed this system to avoid this waste.
It depends on the water’s purpose. Chlorine will dissipate in 36 - 48 hours. After that you can expect algae growth, cloudiness, and the development of a “rotten fish riverbank smell”. Protecting the storage from sunlight will help, but it only slows things down a little. In a month that water will probably be pretty rank. However, lots of factors come into play. Your mileage may vary.
Sounds neat. Wonder why they don’t just do a deep well injection of the ‘old’ water.
Two entirely different things for two entirely different purposes. They really are usually mutually exclusive purposes. . . and different offices and different approaches and different requirements.
You can copyright your original work of almost anything. . . which can even include other people's Trademarks, so long as you don't use those Trademarks to sell similar products. For example, you can take a photograph that includes the Trademarked logos of various stores and copyright it. You cannot Trademark that photo. You can write a book that includes the names of Trademarked businesses and copyright that book (you may want to get permission to use their names in your book, but it usually is not necessary), but you cannot trademark your book, but you can trademark a book series or character if it is distinctive in appearance, but a copyright is more useful for this purpose. However, a work of art, such as a cartoon character can be trademarked and copyrighted. . . and protected under both sets of law. Your choice which you want to apply depending on the infringement.
I didn’t say it had to be a good one!
But seriously, if I had an invention to patent I would seek out the best possible guy and pay the price.
I fully respect the minds and experiences on FR. But something that important is worth the investment.
The money I invested in a goof copyright plan for my photography work has made me thousands, and given me leverage when going after people on unauthorized usage.
“Buy a bound journal of blank pages, have a notary sign the inside pages”
Nope. Notaries should never sign a blank document. Against the law in my State. (I am a notary) A Notary’s journal must include the description of the document. “Blank Journal Page” isn’t going to fly.
Also study King Gillette, Cyrus McCormick, Samuel Colt, Samuel Morse, Alexander G Bell (vs Elisha Gray), Elias Howe (v Singer), and many others for what it takes to protect your IP, sue the bastards, and get rich.
My dabbling with patents have shown most are not worth the paper they are filed on. I have patents on fishing lures, a process for carbon fiber manufacturing, and a bottle filling machine. The second it is filed a patent troll will grab it and change a little bit then try to rub you out. It wasn’t worth the money, for me, to file. They didn’t protect me or my IP. Even if I were to sue it would be a pyrrhic victory as their lawyers are a lot bigger than my lawyers. The best is to make sure you are the first and the best with the name. The process is so convoluted by lawyer speak you need a lawyer. Expect $15k by the time you’re done.
My little ideas were not water treatment related so maybe it would be worth the patent. A process patent would be beneficial. Research online at the patent and trademark website. Chances are someone else may have thought about it. And duct tape your head tightly as it will explode when you start reading the nonsensical descriptions.
Some advice... (I now have a machine shop and get all kinds of people wanting prototypes for their patents) Make sure it can be manufactured.
Good luck
PS. Don’t try to patent the comb over. It’s already there. US4022227
An inventors journal need not be notarized anyway. You point to the correct format, bound (not spiral bound or loose leaf) with numbered pages. The inventor is expected to date entries, with the goal being to show diligence from conception to filing for a patent, and occasionally having anybody witness the date (in writing, in the notebook) is good enough.
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