Inventors 101
An individual inventor has three basic considerations
to weigh:
1. Is my invention novel and unobvious so that I can pursue a patent?
2. When I take my invention to the marketplace who is likely to stop me (through
having rights to their own patent).
3. How can I move from the paper stage to the prototype and actual production of
the invention (including marketing)?
Here are some recommendations and information for your consideration:
a. Patent searchers are unlicensed, unregulated and belong to no national organization
of standards.
b. If you have a good quality patent search report in hand you can “shop” various
attorneys for their opinion and estimates for prosecution of the patent. (If you
don’t have a search report in hand they attorney will likely order one and then
you may ‘wedded’ to that attorney.) The downside is that an attorney visit prior
to a search may help you to isolate the features worth protecting and may address other legal matters that could negative the invention even prior to a search being
conducted, i.e. prior public disclosure.
c. Be sure that your patent searcher has no conflict in the sense that they are
not in the business of providing prosecution (obtaining patents).
d. Risk management: We, as patent searchers, are here to assist in reducing your
risk by providing documents that help establish various boundaries: novelty, unobviousness,
clearance (infringement) &
etc.
e. Searching is progressive
Part 1: If you find that your invention is not new you can either
(1) stop and abandon you project or
(2) find out what areas a ripe for improvement so that your next version will have
“inventiveness” .
Part 2: If a “prior art” document is found that negatives the invention your risk
is cut right then, but if the search (at a given level of expenditure and effort)
does not “wipe out” your invention then that does not guarantee that you will have
no problem in the future but simply says that the risk-reward equation may need
to be re-visited if your risk or exposure (financially) grows.