On July 31, 1790, Samuel Hopkins was issued the first patent of the process of making potash, a component used for fertilizer. President George Washington signed this patent.
Since that day, more than 6 million patents have been issued.
I saw some potassium / fertilizer the other day I need to tell you. I do not watch much TV, but I enjoy Shark Tank show. For me, being on the panel seems to be enjoyable. I have a magnificent respect for those who make enough of his or her self's success to be in a position to invest. It is that all entrepreneurs work for their freedom and options.
That was the other day I saw the advice from Barbara Kokoran of "Shark" investor and I wanted to put this as an addendum to her advice. Barbara is not in the software world. She deals with real estate and goods. In an interview with inc.com, she stated about the major mistakes made by SMEs as follows.
"Spew money out to patents and PRs The right dance steps are as follows.
1) Make a product
2) get some sales
3) You can enlarge you as a giant man, you can only obtain a patent after that. "
At the end of the article, I am linking to that quote (almost as you have not left)
This advice can put technology entrepreneurs in a very bad place, so I cried when I became # 3. # 1 and # 2 are smart!
Here I learned the process of patenting multiple technologies.
1) You need to hire a patent attorney. No, you can not do it yourself. No, your wife's attorney friend can not understand it. The patent attorney is highly professional. Save money and look for a patent attorney.
2) I will not perform any patent attorney. Anyway, the longer the days of technology and software patents become, the more they are worthless. Find a patent attorney specializing in technology / software. If you need a recommendation, please contact me.
3) The patent attorney is authorized by the federal government. If you are in Florida, you do not need to see a Florida lawyer (unique).
4) You are ready to write! If you think that it is easy to tell lawyers your idea and write everything, please think again. About the patents I applied, over 10 pages of technical documents, drawings and images were submitted. If you bring the attorney's trash, he will make a bold patent or bring you luck.
5) Use the artist's artist. Although the drawing seems to be simplified, it costs $ 100 extra per image, but should not be redone on its own unless you reject it or waste time.
6) Please write your patent as widely as possible. Your patent can be returned and returned goods are OK. You go over unnecessary ... go big! Scale the patent and refine the final patentable part based on feedback from the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). You can not add elements later. Do you want to increase the probability of your patent? Please do a lot of things and adjust while getting feedback.
7) Before you go to market, you have to submit your proposed draft. Barbara's advice is very dangerous. In the world of software, we can not patent on what people are using. Unless you have submitted a provisional patent, once it comes out it is "public domain".
8) The patent law is changed daily based on the trial case. Many people (including Mark Cuban) believe that the abilities of patented technology are detrimental to the evolution of technology. You can fully recover.
9) Provisional patent or non-provisional patent can be obtained. The definition of the provisional patent application is as follows: Under the US Patent Law, the provisional application is a legal document filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and provides an early filing date However, if there is no applicable file, the ordinary nonprovisional patent application will be made within one year.
In short, non provisional is "true patent".
10) Obtaining a provisional patent is not as cheap as a non-provisional patent. It includes patent search and ensures your location. You can launch the product when there is a provisional patent date.
11) Non-provisional patent may take up to 5 years to be approved or rejected.
12) Most software patents are not mechanical and are rejected because they do not have their own algorithm.
13) If someone infringes your patent, you are absolutely able to issue a patent and lose in the court. To have a patent and enforce that patent is two completely separate things.
14) When you submit your patent, I teach the world how to "invent", but I am aware that this also has disadvantages.
15) To apply for a US patent, it may cost more than $ 20,000.
16) Once you have issued your US patent, you have 1 year protection / application period for each country wishing to protect. There are 148 countries in the "Patent Cooperation Treaty" and http: // www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ShowResults.jsp?treaty_id=6
17) Each country for which you apply for a patent has its own application fee. Nothing is free in the IP world.
18) If you are fortunate enough to be granted a patent, that patent will be granted for 20 years ... "Granted" does not mean "protected".
19) A large company (Apple / Google) has a department that does just what to file a patent throughout the year. As usual, little guys have clear drawbacks. Barbara is a good thing to ride a large company's radar, but there is no doubt that it is not the case in all cases. Large enterprises are always exploiting small companies like sports.
20) You can choose to make your patent publicly or unpublished to patent journals around the world. By choosing to publish (exposed) and vice versa (perhaps broken?) Publication. That is the choice you have to do.
So, you have it ... my experience with software patents taught me. Please note that Barbara listened to this topic as it was not talking about technology when quoted about a patent.
http://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/17-extraordinarily-candid-observations-from-shark-tank-s-barbara-corcoran.html?cid=em01017week 26a
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