| |
In order to provide necessary information to the Stevens' students and faculty, this chapter will help begin the patenting process. The purpose of a patent is to receive a federal grant for an invention to be manufactured and eventually distributed in the public market. This chapter will cover the requirements an invention must meet before it can be patented. In the United States, the person who originates an invention is given credit for the invention. An individual who patents an invention does not receive credit for it unless they are also the one who originated the invention. This "first to invent" policy helps protect the rights of the originator of an invention. In addition, there is a one-year period from which an inventor can publicly disclose, in technical detail, his or her invention to the last day from which that individual can patent that invention. One year from the date that the invention was publicly disclosed and manufactured is the bar date that a patent application must be filed. By following the requirements given, an inventor should pay mind to the utility requirement and take this requirement further into marketing strategies. If the invention performs its desired functions, gives innovative results, as well as meeting all of the other requirements and classifications mentioned, will the product do well in an open-market? An inventor must ask his or herself this before wasting valuable time, money, and effort into a product that may never earn the inventor profit. An inventor must question if the product will make a profit, become obsolete by the time it is out on the market, the cost of the product and how much it would sell for, will the market grow for such a product, and how well it will perform against competition.
To research and develop answers to these questions, an inventor must perform trials in the open market to observe the invention's success. Professional firms can help market an inventor's product for a fee. For inventors on a small budget, they should contact small businesses, colleges, or entrepreneurships to help market their products. Call the local Small Business Administration or other local government agencies for contact information from businesses, universities, and other individuals who may provide useful marketing strategies. Getting in contact with business executives, other inventors' organizations, and distributors of similar products can help give an inventor the insight need to see if their product can perform well in the open market.
If the results from the marketing research appear negative, it may be best to not patent the invention. If an inventor wishes to contribute his or her invention to society for technological advancement, rather than profit, the inventor can still apply for Statutory Invention Registration, which can be researched at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. This kind of patent is much cheaper and it gives credit to the inventor by disallowing others to patent the invention in the future. In order to claim the rights of being the originator of an invention, the most important and necessary task in developing an invention, is keeping written documentation of the invention. An inventor should perform the following tasks to prove that he or she was the originator of an invention:
- Document the idea of the invention. Documentation of public disclosure of the invention should be kept as well. This documentation must be precise and complete. Calculations, formulas, observations, discussions, results, materials purchased with proof of receipt, photos, sketches, charts, and records of visits for legal assistance should all be recorded or included somewhere within this documentation.
- This documentation should be formatted in the form of a research notebook. This notebook should be permanently bound, it should not contain outside pages anywhere within it, pages should not be skipped or removed, pages must be numbered and dated, all documentation should be written in ink, corrections should never be erased, but rather crossed out, dated, and initialed or signed. All of this is necessary to prove trust and accuracy when proof is needed of an invention.
- An inventor should acquire witnesses. Two, non-relatives of the inventor, who have a grasp on the inventor's work, should be chosen to witness the inventor's work in progress and make note of any changes the inventor makes anywhere within the notebook. Witnesses should be present while documentation and research is added to a notebook so that they may witness and sign that portion of the notebook. It is advisable to have witnesses sign a legal confidentiality agreement, beforehand, so that they will not disclose confidential information on the invention in progress to outside parties.
Before making a legal dispute on who was the first to originate the invention, a patent attorney should be hired. There are three legal classes of patentability that are given to inventions: utility patents, design patents, and plant patents. Utility patents are given to inventions that have an entirely new concept. These inventions can be new or useful processes, chemical compounds or formulas, manufactured goods, etc. The individual who is granted a patent must be able to successfully manufacture and market the invention within twenty years. After this time, the patent becomes public property and another inventor may patent this exact invention to manufacture and market it. A design patent is a patent granted to a new artistic design of an existing product. These ornamental design patents last for up to 14 years. This patent only allows the appearance to be protected, not the actual concept of the invention. Plant patents are interesting because they are granted to an invented or discovered new plant variety that asexually reproduces. An inventor may acquire a plant patent for a 20-year period.
A patent must fill three other requirements besides falling into the three legal classes. The three requirements are the novelty, utility, and non-obvious patent requirements. The novelty requirement allows a patent to be granted to an invention as long as the invention is new. If the inventor originated a concept and either documented it or publicly disclosed the idea, or if he or she manufactured the invention itself a year or more from when they wished to receive a patent, then they have been disqualified from receiving the patent for that invention. The utility requirement states that the invention must be useful. The invention must operate so that it will perform a useful function and do what the inventor says it will do. If the target market cannot find use in the invention or the invention does not operate correctly, then this invention is disqualified from receiving a patent. The non-obvious patent requirement states that the invention must produce new or non-obvious results in its performance compared to existing inventions of a similar nature. Changes in an existing invention's size, material, color, and other obvious features generally disqualify a patent from being given to the invention. The invention's functions and its unique results are what separate the invention from being patentable or non-patentable. More technical and in-depth details can be better given by a legal attorney and other reference materials. Search for online references at the Samuel C. Williams Library's service Safari Tech Books Online, made exclusively for Stevens students and also at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.
|
|
|
synergyusa.com
patentdatabase.com www.stevens.edu/ecalendar
Conferences, Seminars, Information Sessions and more... Drs. Xiaoguang Meng and George Korfiatis were awarded a patent for an iron powder and sand filtration process in the treatment of water contaminated with heavy metals and organic compounds. |
|
Center for Environmental Systems
Center for Maritime Systems
Design & Manufacturing Institute
Highly Filled Materials Institute
NJ Center for Microchemical Systems
Center for Intelligent Networked Systems
Center for Innovation in Engineering & Science Education
Algebraic Cryptography Center |
Print
