The Abcs Of Patent Application

A patent application is defined as a request pending at a patent office for granting a patient for an invention. The concerned entity is often a national patent office, although it may also be a regional body such as the European Patent Office. Here are the basic steps in patent application according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Determine the type of IP protection and if the invention is patentable Find out if you need a patent or some other form of intellectual property (IP) protection. Get the answer to this by answering a number of questions, such as who can apply for a patent and how to know if an invention is patentable. Search to see if your invention has already been publicly disclosed. While at it, determine the kind of patent needed.

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Prepare and submit initial application Determine the cost, how long it likely takes, and expedited examination options. Submit the initial application with all the required parts for obtaining a filing date and include the correct fee.

Work with the examiner Once the application has been accepted as complete, it will be assigned for examination, where the designated examiner will review the contents of the application. If twice rejected, you may appeal the decision to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

Receive approval and maintain the patent Once everything is set and approved, you will get a Notice of Allowance, and utility and reissue patents are issued without around four weeks. The patent grant is mailed on the patent’s issue date. To maintain the patent, pay maintenance fees and check the status.

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Dr. Ron Blum is named as the inventor or co-inventor on over 500 patents and patent applications worldwide. There are presently nine different innovations or IP portfolios with Dr. Blum named as the sole inventor or a co-inventor. Read more about patents and inventions on this site.

Patents and technology in the United States: An overview

Each year, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO issue hundreds of thousands of patents. In 2017, technology titan IBM once again topped the list of patents, while social media giant Facebook broke into the top 50. IBM has dominated the USPTO’s annual ranking and at the moment has more patents than Google, Oracle, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Amazon, and Accenture combined.

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Anyone who owns or manages technology firms know how important patents are to the overall growth of the company. A huge amount of lawsuits filed in courts all over the country involve patent infringement. In fact, a patent is seen as a vital part in many of a company’s sales and operations.

Patent violation lawsuits can go as high as a billion dollars, as the world has seen back in 2012 when Apple filed a case against Samsung. The patent infringement revolved around mobile devices, and while financially, Samsung survived the lawsuit, the South Korean tech empire and other mobile phone manufacturers around the world needed to alter their devices to avoid another billion-dollar case. 

And although patents are filed in almost every industry in the U.S., the spotlight is mostly on technology since it affects other industries in more ways than one. 

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Dr. Ron Blum is the inventor or co-inventor of over 500 patents and patent applications worldwide. For more updates on Ron and his work, subscribe to this Twitter page.