Chapter 11
All About Patents and the USPTO
In This Chapter
◆ Uncle Sam offers protection for your ideas
◆If it ain’t on the page, it may not be on the stage
◆ The USPTO works for you
◆ Disclosure documents—a bargain at $10
The patent system is the bedrock of innovation. … The sheer volume of patent applications not only reflects the vibrant, innovative spirit that has made America a worldwide leader in science, engineering and technology, but also reflects countless new jobs waiting to be unleashed. When patents are developed commercially, they create jobs for the companies marketing products, and for their suppliers, distributors and retailers. One such patent has positive stimulatory effects across almost all sectors of our economy.
—U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
The U.S. government gives you several ways to protect your ideas, including patents, trademarks, and copyrights. If your ideas have physical form, it’s the patent you want as your first line of defense.
Most companies will not license an invention unless it has been or can be patented. The stronger the patent, the better the deal you can negotiate. The stronger the patent, the better the chances are for keeping competition away for a limited time.
Important: The chapters in this book on the protection of your intellectual property (ip) are provided only as a general reference primer about ip and the operations of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). They attempt to answer many of the questions inventors commonly ask but are not intended as a comprehensive textbook on ip law and complex issues. Intellectual property laws, regulations, filing fees, and so forth are in a constant state of change, pushed and pulled by technologies, marketplaces, and special interests. These chapters are not designed to take the place of competent legal counsel, which I encourage you to seek.
Also, in these chapters, whenever I refer to “you,” the assumption is that you, the reader, are the inventor or a co-inventor of record.
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