Doing a Patent

admin

I am sure that there is someone that done or has looked into doing a patent? I have thought up a very little weldment that I think may sell well. For that reason I will not say.Thanks,DanMy instructor said someone will catch on fire during class...He wasn't joking!!
Reply:My husband found this company that develops and I think in the end does the patent thing.  We are in the process of developing a product.  He contacted them with the idea they have people, scientists, lawyers, a slew of team mbrs who research the idea, see if it's already been named or developed, if they think it's a good idea they run with it.  Of course there is cost involved.  We've invested $700 so far.Davison Design and DevelopementLaura MM 180Chop SawDewalt grinderhelpful husband
Reply:I'm getting my # soon... Made a locking device for snowplows so they can't get stolen while not in use..The lawyers decided to patent the concept of my idea..That way there I can pick and choose and change whatever I want to it and nobody else can do it because of the concept angle..Douglas Dynamics (Fisher/Boss/Western Plows)..They have already contacted me for the idea..Because they can't do it.. You need the product..Prints of it and the parts involved..A good patent lawyer..Photos of the part in use...Description of the objective...Lots of $$$$$$$First you submit the idea to the lawyers..Then they issue a patent search..If nobody else has come up with your idea then it's submitted to the Govt. for your number..Takes approx 3 years depending on the complexity of it..My number should be mine by January..Good Luck!...zap!Last edited by zapster; 09-20-2007 at 06:34 PM.I am not completely insane..Some parts are missing Professional Driver on a closed course....Do not attempt.Just because I'm a  dumbass don't mean that you can be too.So DON'T try any of this **** l do at home.
Reply:Sounds interesting. Looks like they do the legal work, but in the end what is there cut if your hard thinking? DanMy instructor said someone will catch on fire during class...He wasn't joking!!
Reply:Originally Posted by xccelagatorSounds interesting. Looks like they do the legal work, but in the end what is there cut if your hard thinking? Dan
Reply:Awesome for you Zap.  10K is the exact number my husband told me we'd be putting in it.  But if you think about it, not that much for a product that will be on shelves of stores everywhere for years to come.Seems worth it to me.Laura MM 180Chop SawDewalt grinderhelpful husband
Reply:You  can file your own patent online, at the US Patent Office, for a few hundred dollars. If you can think, type and make a sentence, you can file for a patent. It's really not that difficult but lawyers have their hands in everything. Good luck to you.John -  fabricator extraordinaire, car nut!-  bleeding Miller blue! http://www.weldfabzone.com
Reply:you can also go to the patent website, uspto.gov, and do searches for existing patents. the search is at:http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.htmlIt takes some getting used to, but can be useful - you might find your idea has already been patented and save yourself some $$$. - John
Reply:I've been through it already. I'm $7000 into it and it's still pending 2 years later. The USPTO will keep "finding" similar items and want more $$$ over and over. Next time you refile, they will myteriously "find" more patents that have absolutely nothing at all to do with your invention, but have one or two words that match. They'll toss your application back...AGAIN. You'll have to pay them and the attorney more $$$ to file AGAIN. Repeat several times.You get your patent 4 years later and another company with 100x the financial resources decides to make the product anyway. Now YOU have to fight them in court. They will bankrupt you. They have bigger and badder attorneys than you or me. But we know how to make pipe bombs just for them (just kidding FBI agents!)Next, someone in China or Bangladesh will rip you off and dump the product in the USA for 1/4 the price you sell it for and you'll never stop them nor whomever is distributing it. This is China's specialty. Their entire economy revolves around screwing people.Besides, you get a patent and someone can make slight changes and produce it without compensating you at all. I see this all daily with products in my field. They get ripped off by Chinka and dump a similar-looking inferior product here for 1/4 less and it is the one that sells big time. They already have distribution networks in place form other ripped off products and can get them on the market faster than you or me. The US manufacturers try to stop them and cannot. By the time they shut down a distributor, another one is in line to take over where they left off. With this in mind...good luck. Make sure you get a REAL patent attorney that has industrial experience. Mine has done several thousand industrial patents- mainly when he used to employed by WABCO.Get your idea in production and apply for the patent. "Pending" has no legal meaning, although if you get ripped off, you can go back on them for compensation on everything they produced in the past (within the USPTO's restrictions). I know- it sucks, but this is how it is. I'm convinced that a patent mean almost nothing at all today just as a trademark or copyright. If someone wants to rip you, they certainly will.
Reply:If you dont want to go through the headache that turbo blown is talking about try this CYA technique. Make a few good sets of blueprints of your product, and a dated letter detailing you as the creator of the product, and a witness to it. Get the letter with you and your witnesses signtures notorized by a notary, and put all these documents into an envelope, and mail it to yourself via first class mail. When it arrives, do not open it, just file it in a safe place. Now go out an manufacture your product, and sell it without a patent. People are going to copy it anyway, but if they do steal your idea, and file for a patent, and try to collect royalties from you even though you created the product before them, you have that certified peice of mail that will verify the date of the documents. Your Azz is covered. I learned this from one of my college proffessors.Miller Syncrowave 200Hobart Handler 140Thermal Dynamics Cutmaster 38E-Z Tube BenderPlasma Cam DHC2
Reply:Originally Posted by Qucifer...if they do steal your idea, and file for a patent, and try to collect royalties from you even though you created the product before them, you have that certified peice of mail that will verify the date of the documents...
Reply:That won't CYA. It has no legal anything.The bottom line is that the one that gets the patent is the one that now has the patent. If two parties file for the same patent on the same day, there is nothing that says one will get it over the other.I actually wrote Stairway To Heaven. I have proof in an envelope.Led Zeppelin ripped me off. ****.Just put it in production. If it's good, it will sell.Eight years ago, I filed for a patent for vehicle side mirrors that automatically fold in when you shut the ignition off. A company from Germany filed around the same time as me and boned me simply for the fact that he had a patent on this already in Germany that we never found record of. He now has the US patent protection.A classic story is the person that invented the intermittent windshield wiper control. He had the patent for over ten years and never published anything or produced anything. In the early 70's GM, Ford and Chrysler started installing intermittent wipers in their cars. He waited for many years and came out with the lawsuit against them. The Big 3 paid him for each and every one they ripped him off on. HAHAHA! He made 9 figures on that one.
Reply:The wiper fight was a 25 year saga, all the way to the supreme court.How about the kid that worked at Sears? He suggested a ratchet that would "kwik release" the socket with a push of a button. The legal fight lasted longer than the patent!Any applicant or product, good enough to survive the vultures, leaches, parasites, tricksters and thieves that stalk the road to the patent office... Probably doesn't need the petty protection offered there!
Reply:You will absolutely want a lawyer. It's a complex processYou also will want to keep in mind that a patent doesn't prevent people from copying you; it merely gives you a huge legal advantage when you sue them because they HAVE copied you.I have known small companies that went broke trying to protect their patents. I'm not telling you this to discourage you from trying -- but to make sure you go in with your eyes wide open.Bob RosenbaumFormer PublisherPenton's WELDING Magazine
Reply:Originally Posted by QuciferIf you dont want to go through the headache that turbo blown is talking about try this CYA technique. Make a few good sets of blueprints of your product, and a dated letter detailing you as the creator of the product, and a witness to it. Get the letter with you and your witnesses signtures notorized by a notary, and put all these documents into an envelope, and mail it to yourself via first class mail. When it arrives, do not open it, just file it in a safe place. Now go out an manufacture your product, and sell it without a patent. People are going to copy it anyway, but if they do steal your idea, and file for a patent, and try to collect royalties from you even though you created the product before them, you have that certified peice of mail that will verify the date of the documents. Your Azz is covered. I learned this from one of my college proffessors.