Got a Better Mousetrap?

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Filing is just the start, says Rob Jacobs, a patent agent and co-owner of Lumen Intellectual Properties, Inc., in Palo Alto. It wont make you a millionaire, but you need to start with a complete strategy that reflects your technology and its potential impact in the marketplace.

What can be patented?

The invention or idea must be determined to be new or novel, which means it hasnt been described or shown in a drawing or photo in a printed publication anywhere in the world. If the invention has been in public use or on sale in the United States before the date you filed your application, the patent wont be granted.

If youre going to publicly disclose, use or sell the idea or device, you must seek a patent within one years time or the right to seek a patent will be lost. To preserve patent rights in a number of foreign countries, you must file on the date when the idea is released publicly.

The invention must also be nonobvious, which means it must be sufficiently different from what has been used or described before. Changes in color and size, for instance, usually would not be allowed as patentable.

To establish a strategic view for an invention, Jacobs distinguishes between technology that can be classified as either fundamental, which can shake up an industry, such as the first digital camera, or nonfundamental, which he calls a me-too kind of invention, such as a skin-rejuvenation formula.

The patent agent or attorney needs to complete a search of prior art (mechanical depiction of how the invention operates) to ensure your claim is considered novel and can go the distance when compared with existing patents. Both kinds of patents are valuable, but a fundamental patent is less common.

In the case of Worldwide Safetys first patent, Jacobs evaluated a dispenser that shoots collapsible orange safety cones onto the highway and deemed it disruptive technology because it would replace the existing human method of setting upcone zones.

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