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Written by : Sung Eagleston |
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what's up guys so today I'm going to be talking about how I got my first patent at 17 and also I'll be explaining how you can apply for your patent and get a patent on your product so this is what we're talking about a United States utility patent and I'm gonna be talking about the way I did it and I'll be only talking about what I know so I'll show it to you here this is the patent that was issued you could see there's a barbell there and this is the product that it was issued on the snap flips barbell collars so I'm gonna tell you about how I got my patent so the process that I follow - then I'll explain step by step what you would do to do the same thing so I started off with not a lot of money had like two hundred bucks and I was in high school and had this idea of a barbell collar that you could use to hold your weights in place so I had made some prototypes this is one of the prototypes here and I thought it was a good idea so wanted to file a patent on it and I wanted to file a provisional patent because a provisional patent is basically a time holder and it says hey I'm here I have this idea and I want to file a patent for it but I'm not quite ready yet so filing a provisional patent sets your spot in line and then you have 12 months from that date to actually file a real patent that can protect your product or idea so the way that I did it was I got some software online it was 150 bucks at the time now it's only 99 dollars for a year so it's called patent wizard put it up right here and you go on patent wizard you download the software and you basically it asks you a bunch of questions like extended response questions about your idea how you make it what it looks like how it works you fill in all that stuff and then I don't know after a couple hours of doing it it prints out your patent for you and at the time I printed it out I mailed it into the USPTO the United States patent trademark office and my spot was saved in line now what you'd actually do is you would make an account online download it to your computer from the software and submit it online if you send it in through the mail now they actually charge you an extra two hundred bucks so it's not worth it so now you would just do it online anyway after I filed my provisional patent I started developing the product more making sure that there was a need for this type of product making sure that people wanted to buy it and I did find that people wanted to buy it so at that point I said okay we need to file an actual utility patent on this product I found some lawyers that were really nice and wanted to work with me and we went through a whole I mean it was a couple months turning our provisional patent that I wrote which I wouldn't necessarily recommend writing your own patent your own provisional patent but I didn't have another option at the time so that's what I did so we took my provisional patent and then we turned it into a utility patent filed it in the office and we actually got it it usually takes between one and three years to get your utility patent issued we filed for expediting the whole patent process it was we paid $6,000 for it looks like it's only a thousand to two thousand dollars now so must have gotten cheaper and what that does is instead of waiting between one and three years it gets done in one year so provisional patents one year and then you file your utility patent after that and in one year you have either an answer yes we have a pet we'll give you a patent on this or no we're not going to give you a patent on this because someone's already made something like this before so after I think it was like eight months or something we had heard back they said we think that you could get a patent on this but you there's some stuff that you would need to change in order to get your patent so we made a couple tweaks to the patent and then it finally got issued we paid some more fees and then we were finally issued a United States utility patent which protected the product and we were basically ready to launch and start selling the product on the market so that's how I did it super quick little you know story about it there's a lot more to it but now I'm going to talk about how you can actually do it so the first step in the process when you're trying to file your patent and the way that I'm going to do this is I'm gonna tell you to file a provisional patent first if you want to go directly in the utility patent more power to you you do that but this is how I did it so first you do a patent search you could go on uspto.gov and you search patent search and then you basically type in descriptive words about what your product your idea or whatever you're trying to patent what it is and you look it up you you look at there you see if anyone has made something or gotten a patent on something similar look on Google see if there's anything similar to what you're doing if you find something similar to what you're trying to patent you're not gonna be able to patent it because someone's already thought of it before in order to get a patent you have to think of something completely new that no one has created before it's never been publicly posted anywhere and no one knows how to do it you're you're the first one that's making this thing so that's the big thing you need to do a patent search and if that checks out and you don't find anyone that's made anything similar then you can go on to the next step you need to figure out what kind of patent you're gonna file you file your provisional first then 12 months past now you're getting ready to actually file your real patent what you need to decide is is it going to be utility is it going to be a design is it going to be a plant patent if it's a product or a new way to do something it's most likely going to be a utility patent so we're gonna be talking about utility patents then what where do you want to file a patent is there just gonna be in the US or is it going to be globally I don't know about filing patents globally so I'm not going to talk about it I'm just going to talk about filing a patent in the US it's gonna be a non provisional patent because you've already filed your provisional patent and the twelve months has passed and it's come time you know maybe like 11 months is passed and it's now it's time to file your actual patent your non provisional utility patent so then you need to decide are you going to expedite it or are you not going to expedite it if you expedite it it's going to get done in one year if you don't expedite it it can still get done in one year but it could take up to three years so that's a choice that you're gonna have to make which comes with a fee the fee is between 1,000 and 2,000 dollars - depends on if you're considered a micro entity or a small entity then who should file it so for the provisional patent I filed that by myself if you have the cash it's probably better to have an actual lawyer file your provisional - but if you don't have the cash and you don't have another option file the provisional yourself but once you get to the actual non provisional once you get to your u
Thanks for your comment Cornell Turay, have a nice day.
- Sung Eagleston, Staff Member
a utility patent protects an inventor's intellectual property it is the most common type of patent issued it protects the Wayne invention works anyone who creates an entirely new machine process chemical compound manufactured product material composition or method can apply for a utility patent the United States Patent and Trademark Office USPTO also issues utility patents for functional improvements to existing inventions these must be considered non-obvious useful and new utility patents are further subdivided into three categories based on the inventions function electrical chemical and mechanical many inventors trying to patent their intellectual properties start with a provisional patent application unfortunately provisional patent applications are not available online because they are not official patent applications reviewed by the USPTO the good news is since provisional patent applications are never made public you can be sure your patent application stays secret until you file the non provisional application provisional applications merely serve as placeholders to give inventors patent pending status the main sections of a provisional patent application are a written description of the invention Illustrated figures showing what the invention looks like at a cover sheet or transmittal letter that details the inventors contact information because a provisional utility patent application is not a formal patent request it's cheaper to file than a non-provisional application and can be done without legal assistance reasons to consider using a utility patent example most inventors who do file their own provisional utility patent applications do so to save money while obtaining the patent pending protection they need a provisional application protects your discovery or invention and gives you time to decide whether to pursue the patenting process and since you have a full year from the provisional filing date you have extra time to get the money required to pay for the non-provisional patent application design patent example versus a utility patent example a design patent is not the same thing as a utility patent utility patents include new or improved ideas processes machines and manufacturers design patents protective devices ornamental design be sure you know which type of patent you need before going ahead with the filing process hiring a lawyer to file your patent application doesn't have to be expensive it's the best way to be confident that you're approaching the patent process in the right way
Thanks alnoW your participation is very much appreciated
- Sung Eagleston
About the author
I've studied secondary education at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook and I am an expert in drug policy. I usually feel good. My previous job was non-retail sales supervisor I held this position for 27 years, I love talking about graffiti and acrylic painting. Huge fan of Larry Miller I practice rafting and collect banknotes.
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