You want to patent your idea. You are hesitant to move forward because you've been warned there are big price tags for patents. Now, you are wondering if you can get away with just doing it yourself.
A patent is like a guard dog for your invention. Unless you are trained in patent writing, you are likely to craft a friendly chihuahua of a patent. It’s a watch dog, but it doesn’t do that much toward protecting your assets. A well-written patent that you can afford to litigate is the guard dog equivalent of a hungry doberman with a headache. Nobody fights that dog without thinking twice about it. Most people are happy to have a loud barking and stately looking German Shepard. It never has to bite anyone because it states its intention very clearly. Besides, it just looks good.
At Rocky Mountain Patent, we understand you want a beautiful German Shepard of a patent and you have a friendly Chihuahua budget. We are happy to work with a Chihuahua budget and encourage you to do a few things that really help keep our costs down. Surprisingly, writing your own patent is not one of them. Writing your own patent is like doing your own plumbing. Sometimes you can get away with it. Other times, you increase your costs significantly.
Here are the top 8 things you can do to turn a Chihuahua budget into a German Shepard patent:
#1 Know the patent process
Read up. Understand what it takes to get a patent. Understand the difference between a provisional and a non-provisional. Understand the role of the Examiner. Understand the role of the patent prosecution process. If you come into the patent agent's hands without this knowledge, they will have to spend time explaining the process. To limit costs, read the basic information on the USPTO website. Start with the patent process page.
#2 Know your invention
Draw pictures. Write a page describing your invention. Describe what problems this invention solves in the world. When you invent something, a little chemical reaction happens in your head. This chemical reaction bonds you to the invention much like the chemical reactions that bond a mother to her child. You are drunk with love. Because you know this invention in your heart, it’s hard to realize that you don’t actually know the invention in your head. Worse, you can’t articulate it. Your agent’s job is to articulate your invention in writing in your patent. When you have trouble telling her about it, she is forced to spend time pulling details out of you in phone calls and meetings. Information transfer from your heart to your agent’s head takes a lot of time and costs you a lot of money. When you have thought hard about your invention that information transfer takes a lot less time and saves you money.
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#3 Know the prior art
Your agent will help you do a clearance search. Notice that I said, help. The professional search will uncover many of the inventions similar to yours that have been previously patented. The prior art search will not always include a search of the rest of the world for things similar to yours. Your agent is a patent specialist and they will help you find other patents like yours. You have to be a specialist of your invention. You should continually search for products on the market that resemble your invention. Make a list of anything similar and where you found it. Do this every week to catch new things. Things pop up on Kickstarter, Amazon, Alibaba, and everywhere else. You want to do these product searches yourself. There’s no need to pay your agent for this kind of search. Frankly, you’ll recognize the similarities between your invention and some other product faster than they will anyway.
#4 Know your own purpose
Your patent strategy will be very different depending on your reason for wanting the patent. Your patent might be the first asset in a new company. Maybe it is an invention that you wish to license to a user. Some people just want to own a patent and have no motives beyond that. All of these are perfectly good reasons to want a patent, and they require very different strategies. Your agent and attorney will be very helpful in crafting a strategy that matches your purpose. It’s your job to know your purpose.
#5 Expect to create a fallback strategy
Often inventors find that they have reinvented something that exists in the world already. This can be a frustrating realization for an inventor. Some people may give up at this point. A savvy inventor can help his agent read through existing patents that are uncovered in the search and understand how they can tweak their invention to avoid overlapping with prior art. A savvy inventor can pivot the invention to make the most of the remaining opportunity for invention.
#6 Be a good listener
Agents and attorneys know that you are trying to keep costs down. Most will do their best to limit time and expense. When the agent has to repeat things to you, you can end up paying for that time twice.
#7 Understand and share the WHY
Help the agent out. Make a list of arguments for the problems that exist in the field of the invention, and HOW your invention solves those problems. Identifying how your invention solves problems helps you figure out WHY the world needs your invention. Your patent agent will spend a significant amount of time crafting an argument for why the world imminently needs your invention. This is the Background section of your patent. This is a big part of both the provisional and the non-provisional patent applications. It sets the stage for the attorney to argue with the USPTO for the acceptance of your application.
#8 Be aggressive and realistic
Your goal is to own as much of the world surrounding your invention as possible. If you make broad claims (i.e. I claim all surfaces made of wood), you will spend money preparing a patent application that will ultimately be denied by the USPTO. If you make very narrow claims (i.e., I claim a desktop made of laminated cedar, 2.5 feet tall, that has a divot in the upper right hand corner for a cup to sit in, and a ridge at the bottom for a pen to sit in, with a square designated just left of center for paper, and a polished surface so no one gets splinters, and the word “Desk” painted on it in gold leaf, and 7 rhinestones oriented in an “L” shape, with a bar below that is meant for a user to place his feet, the bar being made of brass that is polished only on the lower face so that the upper face is not slippery, and also including a music box that plays Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer”), you will spend money on a patent that is likely be granted to you, but that is so limited in scope that it has very little value to you or anyone else.
With that, we wish you happy patenting! Aim for German Shepard quality and be smart about it to get Chihuahua pricing.
