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This service includes both a RUSH provisional patent application to get you patent pending within a week, followed-up with the full non-provisional utility patent at our regular speed.
The RUSH Provisional Patent Application includes:
- Full Detailed Description and Claims
- Preparation of any sketches or informal drawings
- Any application paperwork that is required
- Filed within a week to get you "Patent Pending" quickly
The subsequent Non-Provisional Patent Application includes:
- Full Background, Summary, Abstract (in addition to the full set of claims and detailed description filed with the RUSH provisional)
- Formal drawings
- Any application paperwork that is required
- Filed within the next 12 months (typically the next two to three months)
To get started, complete the form below.
Alternately, you may fax or mail this >hard-copy
order form with sketches, patent search results or copies of
prior art patents, payment, and any other necessary information.
We will advise you of an anticipated filing date
upon receipt of your order.
Further Discussion About Utility Patents
The claims are the legal portion of the patent, and define the
scope of the patent protection. They are often difficult to read,
and each claim appears to be a long run-on sentence. It is. Even
though a patent may appear to protect a particular product based
on the other parts, however, reviewing the claims will let you know
what's actually protected. Not all patents are equally strong in
their protection. Indeed, many patents are quite weak.
For example, if the closest prior art patent claims elements A,
B, and C in a device that solves a certain problem, and your idea
is comprised only of elements A and B, then you
Claims work similarly to how prospectors use to claim real estate
for, say, a gold mine. They would "stake a claim" for
a particular area of land. Similarly, the claims in a utility patent
work the same way. As the inventor, you claim a particular area
of technology. When the Patent Examiner reviews your claim, he basically
does a title search (in the form of a patent search) to see where
your nearest neighbors are if your claim crosses any of their property
lines. If not, and the claim (in the form of the entire patent application)
is otherwise proper, then you're the "first on the hill"
and you'll get a strong patent. However, 99% of the time the Examiner
finds neighbors that are closer to your claims than you thought.
At this point the Examiner will issue an "Office Action"
rejecting your claims, but telling you why so that you can modify
your patent application to conform to the boundaries that the Examiner
determined were set by your neighbors. Once these boundaries are
agreed upon, a patent will issue. However, this process is how patents
get "watered down" and weaker than they were as originally
filed. The extent of how strong your patent is when it issues will
depend on what the Examiner finds when he does his search. Examiners
are not limited to just patents, but can take cite foreign patents
as well as articles or just about any other published work... even
items found on the public Internet. |