Approximately 180,000 patents are issued each year by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Only about three percent of issued patents become profitable. Filing a patent application may run anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000. If you plan on patenting your invention and do not intend to squander money on its application process, these five tips will help you decide whether to move forward with a provisional patent application.
Inventor(s):
Are you the person who originally came up with the invention? The origin of the invention must start and end with you unless you have chosen to allow others to partake in the creative process. If other individuals contribute to the invention they must receive credit for the part they played in its creation. Such credit must also be given on a regular patent application. At least one of the inventors on the provisional patent application must be on the regular patent application. Failing to include an inventor's name on a provisional or regular patent application may lead the USPTO to invalidate the patent. A co-inventor is a person who brings one or more novel concepts to the table during the creation of a patentable invention. This should help in preventing you from committing this costly error.
Novelty:
Your invention must represent something new to the marketplace. This means that previous inventions or information pertaining to patents must not bear any similarities to the one you invented. Once your invention passes the novelty test, it should be smooth sailing from there unless you encounter delays in the processing time of your patent. Remember that prior art consists of anything that is being used by the public or sold within the United States more than one year before the filing of your patent application.
Commercial value:
Filing a provisional patent will allow you to use that time to assess the commercial value of your patent. At this phase you'll determine whether your patent has the potential to make you a profit. You may be able to receive as much as 24 months of sale information during that time. The USPTO does not assess the commercial value of your patent during the provisional or regular patent application process. Therefore, it is important that you take this time to do your own analysis. If you're confident that your invention will make it big in the marketplace, you may proceed with a regular patent application. Factors that may affect the profitability of your patent include cost, demand, competition, and ease of use. You may also consider the legal problems that may emerge from commercializing your invention as well as the positive or negative effect it may have on society.
Benefits of your invention:
Will your patent be beneficial to those who use it? The USPTO will only grant you a patent if they can determine the usefulness of your invention. There may be occasions where patents were rejected due to its ineffectiveness. Take for instance, an inventor who created a drug that has the ability to cause significant,dangerous toxicity. In such a case, the invention would be deemed as being ineffective.
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