Do any Freepers hold a patent?

self

[dighton]

You will hear from my attorney about lame.

;-)

[Cacique]

btt

[DB]

I did. Let it expire.

[blam]

Thanks to your dad.

You just never know about some people:

Potomac Institute For Policy Studies

Jeff Baxter, Member, Board of Regents and Senior Fellow
Mr. Jeff Baxter currently serves as Chairman of the Civilian Advisory Board for Ballistic Missile Defense. He has acted in an advisory capacity for Congressmen Curt Weldon and Dana Rohrabacher, both members of the House Science Committee, and has participated in numerous wargames for the Pentagon. Mr. Baxter was invited to serve on the Laser Advisory Board at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and has lectured at the University of Manitoba School of Political Science on the topic of regional conflict and missile defense. He is a world-renowned guitarist and a former member of both Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers.

[djf]

A few years ago there was an effort to diminish the strength of American patent law on the international front. Quite a duke out in Congress, as I recall. But it was successfully defended against.

I mean this is a constitutional area - because congress is required to secure to inventors rights to their invention.

Art I Sec 8

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

[Kirkwood]

I have a couple of patents and 2 pending. My advice is that you get an attorney/patent firm who has a lot of past experience in patent filings and who will make sure the paperwork is done correctly and on time. It really is worth it to have someone else take care of these things for you while you go about doing your research on finding someone to buy the rights to your invention or finding investors and hiring people if you plan to start a company around this product. It might help to find a patent attorney with specific experience in your area of interest so they know how to conduct an appropriate search for existing patents. I used a firm from Washington DC and was very happy with their work. I learned a lot from them in the process, expecially the first time through. I wouldn’t waste time trying to do anything on your own, although reading a little beforehand about the process might be somewhat helpful.

[DB]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_patent

[djf]

A very good friend of mine is an EE and frequently does mechanical engineering types of things. He’s also one of the best auto mechanics I have ever known.

I will know by the look on his face when he sees the drawing...

[Kickass Conservative]

No, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

I know, it’s not an original comment, but I’m practicing to be a Democrat politician. Let’s see, tax cuts for the rich, Republicans are Evil, it’s for the children and my all time favorite, the politics of personal destruction.

[DB]

Remember that when you patent something it is publishing to the world what you’ve done. If the idea has significant value others will attempt to make minor variations and go forward with your basic idea. If your patent is really worth a lot of money others will copy it and force you to defend it in court at your expense knowing they will likely be able to bankrupt you before it is settled.

If your idea is very hard to uncover (buried in custom or FPGA logic for example) and you are able to take advantage of the resulting product directly then you might consider skipping the patent process and simply keeping it a company secret and selling the resulting product.

If the plan is to sell the patent so someone else can take advantage of it then a patent is a must. In this case it is critical that the patent attorney you use knows what he's doing and is able to make the patent as broad as possible. The narrower it is, the easier it is for others to get around it.

Good luck!

[TexasCajun]

What? You've come up with a better...

-Good Luck-

[Skibane]

Required reading for anyone considering a patent (in downloadable PDF file format): Don Lancaster: The Case Against Patents

[Tunehead54]

4 am review. ;-)

[CurlyDave]

I will know by the look on his face when he sees the drawing...

1. If you show him the drawing without a non-disclosure agreement, you have started the clock ticking on your one-year period to file and you may have blown your chances for any foreign patents at all.

2. There is a huge difference between doing mechanical engineering types of things and being a mechanical engineer.

Back when I went to school (dinosaurs were frequently seen on the athletic fields) practical thermodynamics was only studied in detail by MEs and ChEs. The reason is that it is hard science. Oh, other majors studied it, but not in excruciating, brain bursting detail.

The crux of the problem I see is that for any heat engine (internal combustion engines are heat engines) the maximum efficiency is given by the second law as Efficiency = (Temperature 1 - Temperature 2)/ Temperature 1.

In the case of an internal combustion engine, the maximum possible efficiency is going to be determined by the actual temperature of the combustion products (Temperature 1) and the temperature of the exhaust gas (Temperature 2).

The temperatures have to be measured in either degrees Kelvin, or degrees Rankine.

Anyway, the very highest heat engine efficiencies are achieved in steam powered turbines for electrical generation. Slightly over 40% efficiency is the practical limit, which is based on the strength of materials available for construction.

Mobile engines are always less efficient than stationary ones because of the engineering compromises inherent in making them mobile. Current internal combustion engines achieve efficiencies of 26-34%.

Take a look at this reference: http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/102spring2002_Web_projects/Z.Yates/Zach's%20Web%20Project%20Folder/EICE%20-%20Main.htm

The problem with your claim of 90% efficiency is two fold:

1. it is roughly three times that of any current engine, and

2. There is a maximum theoretical combustion temperature for any material, and neither gasoline nor diesel will produce a Temperature 1 high enough to achieve 90%. This is set by chemistry, and no mechanical gismo will allow you to circumvent it. I am not going to do these calculations for you, it would take several hours.

I am not trying to throw cold water on your idea. I am trying to tell you that it is going to take money to develop it, and you can save yourself a lot of that money by talking to someone who really understands the chemistry and thermodynamics of an engine, and knows how to do the calculations that will demonstrate whether there is any real chance of your idea producing an improvement.

[ME-262]

No, I just came up with a better mouse.

[ME-262]

One patent is being issued as I type and another is pending, I've got some foreign patents pending on the same stuff.

Do not get ripped off by using an invention help company, go to a reputable local patent attorney and pay to have it done right every step of the way. A good attorney sounds expensive at first, but if your Idea is worth a crap it is the fastest and cheapest and best way to go in the long run.

Don't be surprised if the girl who reviews your application for the USPTO.GOV allows then disallows then allows then disallows then allows the same claims for impertinent reasons. She's got a monthly cycle and that's the only way to figure it. Just keep your attorney on her butt until she gives you what you want. She's got phony objections, but you can wear her down until she gives it up to you.

[ME-262]

I will know by the look on his face when he sees the drawing...

[CJRun]

I had a meeting with someone, a week ago, and this was on the agenda. A semi-retired successful business man agreed to meet me for a meal and beers to discuss several subjects, but among them were two manufacturing suggestions and the patent process. One partner of mine spent a great deal of time on the issue and our guest explained that he wouldn’t bother. He liked the idea of the product, but had to face production costs and potential sale price and determined (in his opinion) that it was unworthy of going through patenting.

The patent process will cost $7,000 to $10,000 and will give you precisely nothing, but the right to spend money suing people. Below a certain threshold, if the manufacturing costs are too close to the market price, competitors are less likely to move in and steal the idea and a patent wouldn’t be the thing that was keeping them away.

If the product has a significant market value above the manufacturing/distribution process, then competitors will flock in. I abandoned my manufacturing idea, as it was a minor item on my list, because I assumed his advice applied to my idea as well. However, he asked me to pitch it to him anyway, and he said, “No, this one you patent.” So that means I would have to go through the process. The key deciders, for our guest, was the size difference between costs and price, plus the size of the potential market. The idea he had advised against patenting could sell for approximately twice the costs and have a limited, but steady market; no patent (in his opinion). My idea was more complex to manufacture, but it could sell for something like 4 times the cost and have a big market. That, he said to patent, but he also cautioned that all I would get is a right to sue; people would move in and steal the idea and make me sue.

It seems to me as a non-businessman (scientist), that I’m best off polishing the idea and getting a patent, then selling everything to a company with lawyers. The threshold appears to be that if the product is mostly an idea, then go for the patent. If it involves significant effort in the manufacturing and/or distribution departments, the bad guys are less apt to come circling.

Hope that’s a useful perspective.

[tanaka]

The fees can be found here: USPTO fees

I have patents and I have passed the USPTO patent agent exam. Once you have filed an application, you can say you have a "patent pending", though it does not mean anything (ie apart from bragging rights).

It is a bit cheaper to file a provisional application (rather than the "normal" ie non-provisional application). You should claim "small entity status" which means that can get a 50% discount on most fees. Filing fee is $105 for a provisional application. In anycase, eventually you would have to file a non-provisional application, so in that sense, filing non-provisional is an extra costs (but it may give you more time to decide whether you really want to start the patenting process).

If you are not a patent expert (and not use one), you have little, if any, chances ever earning anything on the patent.
If you write a good description and file the provisional, then you have a year to file the actual non-provisional patent application. (With the patent claims, which have legal meaning).

[chopperman]

One of the things I like about Free Republic is the quality of some of the threads. I don’t think you’ll ever see the above discussion at DU or DailyKos.