Did you know that a little
innocent post on social media could get you in a whole host of trouble and in
fact invalidate your ability to get a patent? Hey, and welcome to how to get a patent on
your idea. I'm J.D. Houvener and i'm the CEO and Principal Attorney here at Bold Patents
law firm i'm going to be here today talking about what it means to get a patent on an idea and
some of the nuances all the way along the track. You got to know right out of the gate that when i
say idea it kind of pains me a little bit because i know that ideas, while certainly valuable, and
i mean i talk about bold ideas right in my book, ideas are by nature a dime a dozen. Okay,
everybody's got ideas, whether they are fun, cool, big, small, but what does it mean
to actually bring an idea to an invention? Okay so the major difference is that an invention is something you've really thought
about, something you've thought through well enough to where you could describe how
to make it and how to bring it about just on paper right, through drawings so that someone
else could take what you wrote and go build it! Okay that's an invention, and when we
work with inventors at Bold Patents we want you to move from idea to invention with
us and with our help. One thing iv'e got to mention upfront too is that ideas sometimes
can get carried away. These are big ideas, right? You think about what could i do to improve
and it oftentimes comes with some barriers. Cost issues, maybe government's got
regulations blocking the situation, etc. Something you have to know is that there's
no requirement to build a prototype! So, don't think you have to spend you know ten
or even a hundred thousand dollars building your prototype if it's if the idea is that big you've
simply got to be able to articulate it through words and drawings to move your idea from that
phase to an invention is your patent eligible. Do you fit into one of the four patent areas?
Is it patentable? Do you have a machine, do you have a process, do you have an assembly, or do you
have a composition of matter? If you fit into one of those categories you're patent eligible and you
can move forward. If you have any questions about what it means and what those categories mean
and want more information about whether your specific invention is eligible i encourage you to
visit our website boldip.com, we've got lots of free resources there for you someone who's just
getting started or someone who's maybe inventing their second project who wants a little more
advanced information we've got that for you too. And i want to show you really quickly in the
book i wrote just a year and a half ago bold ideas the inventor's guide to patents this
has got all the essentials that you need to help understand what's the difference between a
patent and a trade secret patent and a trademark this is it grab your free copy downloadable
pdf version on our website at boldip.com today. After you figure out whether your invention
is eligible or not the next step is okay which inventors should i indicate okay. Ok,
this example may be sort of coming out of left field but if you're not the only inventor you're
actually obligated to include all the inventors in the application so when does someone
actually become an inventor great question generally an inventor is someone
that's added to the conceptual idea right there's a foundational principle
some people get confused and think that someone who manufactures a product or helps
with the prototype is part of the it should be listed as an inventor and that's not true
right someone can be the architect the designer known as the inventor, and says please make this
per this plan the person that makes it sure while they're well in their craft and good at their
skill they didn't actually invent and come up with any aspects of it, so if you have any more
questions about inventorship again please give us a contact and if you're getting good value on
this video we'd love to get this out to as many inventors as possible so please give us a like or
thumbs up share this video with someone you know that could really use this information we want to
help all inventors reach their visionary dreams. All right, so once you've identified who the
inventors are it's important to understand the ownership so sometimes employees are also
inventors right you've got day jobs and so something to really make sure you're clear about
is that if you want to own this invention on your own you've got to do so on your own time and that
includes using your own resources so if you're using a computer using a you know a 3D printer
if you're using some sort of CAD system you've got to understand your own resources need to be
used and it can't be related to the job you have so another deep dive inquiry if there's sort of a
gray area maybe you were on the clock maybe you're even assigned to a project and it's related to
what you're trying to seek patent protection for get with us right away we need to make sure it's
clear who's going to own this thing the last thing we want to do is end up taking your money and
have the patent owned by your by your business. Okay, all right so after inventorship
and ownership is cleared the way to get a patent is to make sure you're going to be
clear about what your goals are your goals business goals to you know own this thing long
term and to have a business created around it and to make this a really long lasting business or
is it your goal to really just license and sell it get it done if it's the latter you'll want to
work directly with us as patent attorneys and just get your your patent packaged up so that
it's most lucrative most valuable to someone looking to license and sell it if your goal is
to start a new business i mean good on you right that's how this this country was founded
that is what entrepreneurs are all about we love serving them but know that we are just a
part of the professional sphere of the people you need to get a hold of to make this dream happen so
we do our best to refer you to the people that we have trusted over the years to help our clients
out succeed in business so let us know up front work with an attorney to make sure
they're clear about what your goals are so you can get referrals to the people that
you need to get help with down the road so the next thing to take a look at and this goes
back to my social media question right at the beginning is okay if you've if you've talked about
your invention and shared your invention there is a one-year statutory rule right one year that's
12 months if you have disclosed your invention online right talked about what your invention
is showed a video about what your invention does to get feedback put it up on kickstarter or even
sold your invention which includes even making an offer for sale more than a year ago you
were ineligible for patent protection. Okay, i know that's tough to hear so
there are some workarounds okay so if you are under that category where you've actually
disclosed your invention more than a year ago it could be right it could be that you've
invented you made some improvements on your invention since you posted that so you
could get protection over just those improvements and we could certainly talk about that at a free
consultation with one of our advisors and move forward to help you with getting in touch with the
patent attorney today all right so the next thing to think about is the patentability okay so as
you get down this path you've explored eligibility mentorship ownership now you're past the statutory
bars you're not going to be barred if you haven't disclosed your subject matter you're not at issue
there now is your invention patentable you have to show three things okay novelty non-obvious it
has to have utility those are the three biggies so without those three you can't move forward novelty
just means has to be new new in the world it has to be non-obvious you know not a obvious version
of another prior art that's already out there prior art is just a fancy word for any reference
technical or otherwise patent document or non-patent document that's talked about the
industry talked about your type of technology if it's out there in the market the examiner will
find it that's what you've got to know up front is if you've got an obvious iteration or something
that's already been done before utility means you have to show that there's some benefit some
entertainment value even some financial benefit some economic benefit or mechanical leverage and
so on those are all great utilities to show all right so the second piece of whether you move
forward or not is looking one at patentability but the other one is marketability don't forget
your end goal should be to make money and to be successful in business so not only we want to look
at hey can we get you a patent on this but will this succeed in the market so you've got to take
a look at both of those pieces as a business owner as an inventor moving forward to make a sound
business decision now we're at the phase of being able to prepare your application for filing you've
got all this work behind you working with your patent attorney how do you move to the next stage
you've got to put together the written description what's also called the specification the spec
talks about every single part of your invention and how it is coming together right the how the
details this explains through words how to build it how it functions what the inputs and outputs
are and in the end will provide the basis for what you're claiming is yours and what you invented
so when you submit the written description the claims and the drawings of the patent office you
do so most effectively by electronically filing it electronic submittal will actually save you some
money the USPTO has done a lot lately to help move things in the right direction and moving
toward a paperless environment well there's one final thing to think about when you file your
application in the u.s is to not be short-sighted think big right so think about international
protection get with your patent attorney to think about what it might take to get your patent filed
in other countries there's a fantastic mechanism called the patent cooperation treaty pct that's
what allows you to file in as many countries as you want and also give you time up to a year and
a half to decide when to file in which country stay tuned for more we got a separate video
on the patent cooperation treaty coming up it's been so fun talking with you here today about
how to get a patent what the fundamentals are all the way through in this all-step process if
you have any questions at all we'd love to feel those questions give us a thumbs up like and
share this video with anyone you might know and again i'm J.D. Houvener the CEO
and managing partner at bold patents it's been my pleasure talking with
you here today. Go Big, Go Bold!
