Recent Posts

1

Patent Questions and Advice / Re: Improvements to an old design

« Last post by Brad on August 10, 2019, 08:22:24 AM »

If its just the look/shape that you are changing this sounds like a "design patent" is needed but there is no PPA for designs but thats okay because design patents are less expensive (we charge around $1200 to file a design patent which includes all government fees, draftsman fees, etc.)

If you were actually making functional changes to the old device so that it worked differently that may be a "utility patent" in which case you could file a PPA.

In both cases once the patent app is filed you can try to meet with the companies and see if they want to take a license from you or just buy your patent application outright.

2

Patent Questions and Advice / Improvements to an old design

« Last post by zach on August 09, 2019, 02:13:25 PM »

Hi,
I have improvements to an old design that is currently on the market through multiple companies and I'd like to add the new improvements and approach these companies for a possible licensing deal.  I can't find any patents on the old design and I'm pretty certain that it has expired.  Do I fill out a PPA with the new improvements and file it as a new design? 

Thanks!

-Zach

3

Patent Questions and Advice / Re: digital photographs

« Last post by Brad on August 04, 2019, 04:44:39 PM »

Sorry we do not give out legal advice here and you would really need to check with a patent attorney who understands patent litigation and have them review your claims and your patent to see what type of coverage you have (this is not a service that I offer).

I would also look at your description/text of your patent to see how you defined "digital photographs".  Hopefully you described them in a way that was broad enough to cover videos, etc.   

You can try to find a patent attorney near you here:  https://www.napp.org/find-a-practitioner#/

4

Patent Questions and Advice / digital photographs

« Last post by nona on August 03, 2019, 10:37:09 AM »

i have a patent that describes an action that contains a use digital photographs. anther compny is coping my patent acsept for the fact she use live video. i can easily prove that video is a sequence of photos.
technically video is like many photos
but the question is-
from legal point of view- can i say that video is like many photos?

5

Patent Questions and Advice / Re: Provisional Application for Patent Cover Sheet

« Last post by Brad on July 23, 2019, 09:38:15 AM »

It should be fine and they will likely change your selection and fix it for you.    If you don't get a filing receipt back from them after 3 weeks I would call the UPSTO and ask them to confirm everything is okay.

6

Patent Questions and Advice / Provisional Application for Patent Cover Sheet

« Last post by jenna on July 22, 2019, 04:31:19 PM »

Hi,

I recently submitted a provisional patent application online but I realized that on my cover sheet I accidentally checked "Application Data Sheet" even though I did not include that on my submission. Would that create any delays and/or require an additional fee to correct?

Thank you.

7

Patent Questions and Advice / Re: Can I patent? Easy one

« Last post by Brad on July 06, 2019, 10:29:25 AM »

In theory you are supposed to be able to get a patent on a new and non-obvious use of an existing product, in reality those type of patents are just about impossible to get approved.   Ideally you would have some evidence or logical reason why someone would not normally combine the two.

For example, if you were the first person to think of combining peanut butter and jelly to make a sandwich, that may be a great idea and you may be the first one to do it but the patent office will say these are both food items that people have put on sandwiches before so it would routine or odviouss to put them together so they will reject your patent. 

Now, if you had some data or evidence that peanut butter normally does not mix well with jelly and that it would be strange or illogical to put the two together you may have a better shot here.

8

Patent Questions and Advice / Can I patent? Easy one

« Last post by Dave1 on July 06, 2019, 07:19:20 AM »

Hi All,

Hoping you can answer this one.

If I have two products both having existing patents. Can I patent the "application" or the way I would like to use them together and if so what is that process called and is there any specific information I need to be aware of to proceed with a patent?

I wouldn't actually be changing the products. In fact they were designed to work together. But I want to apply them in a specific way and I'm wondering if I can patent that idea?

Cheers
Dave

9

Patent Questions and Advice / Re: Collapsible Straw

« Last post by Brad on June 22, 2019, 08:00:33 AM »

Trying to determine what specific rights a patent like FinalStraw has can be challenging and most patent attorneys will charge at least a few thousand dollars for this work called often called a "freedom to operate" opinion.

In general, you must look at the "claims" section of their patent to see what their patent actually covers.   For example, if their claims all say the stray must include 4 sub-units and Walmart sells one with just 2 sub units it may not fall under the claims of their patent and the patent owner cannot stop them.

(this is not legal advice and claim interpretation is one of the most difficult and serious parts of patent law so you will not get specific advice online for questions like this).

10

Patent Questions and Advice / Re: Patent applicant on the certificate

« Last post by Brad on June 22, 2019, 07:57:21 AM »

Likely it was too late to change the applicant to the company.   If you need to make changes to items like that right before publications there is a special publications tab within Private Pair where you can sometimes get them to make last minute changes prior to publication.