A patent validity opinion is undertaken to determine whether a particular patent or group of patents may be asserted against someone introducing a related new machine, product, process or composition of matter. If for any reason (as discussed below) a patent is not valid, it cannot be infringed. Thus, a patent validity opinion may well be part of an overall patent infringement opinion. (Such a patent validity opinion may lead to a broader search for other patents or publications that may be used to invalidate the patent.)

Therefore, the first step is to determine if the term of the patent has run, or whether the patent still appears to be enforced. This will begin with a determination of when the patent issued (for patents prior to June 8, 1995, their life is 17 years from the date of issue) or when the patent application from which the patent resulted was filed (since June 8, 1995, the life of the patent has been 20 years from the date of filing).

Thus, if the term of a patent has run, it is no longer valid and cannot be infringed. Further, since December 12, 1980 , United States patents have required maintenance fees to keep them in force. If the maintenance fees have not been timely pay, the patent will have expired and cannot be infringed (subject to the possible reinstatement of the patent to valid status, after which he will again become capable of being infringed – although it cannot be infringed during the period of invalidity).

Thus, if the maintenance fees have not been paid and the patent has expired, the opinion will reflect that the patent is not currently in force and cannot be infringed. If, during the patent application process, a reference (either a U.S. patent or published patent application, a foreign patent or foreign published application, or any other material available to the general public) was not considered, the subject patent may not be valid.

If it can be shown that the subject patent was disclosed in any other reference more than a year prior to the filing date of the subject patent, and that such was never considered during the examination process (or possibly may have been misinterpreted during the examination process), the subject patent may be a candidate for re-examination. During such re-examination, the patent may be upheld or may be rendered invalid. If the latter is the case, it cannot be infringed.

When you become familiar with the laws surrounding patents and trade secrets, the question soon arises, “Which is better – patent protection or trade secret protection?” The answer depends not just on what you’re trying to safeguard, but can also hinge on its economic value and longevity, your financial objectives and the marketplace you’re in. Here’s how to take these issues into account as you evaluate your situation.

Differences Between Patents and Trade Secrets

The first issue to consider is whether the intellectual property (”IP”) you want to protect qualifies for either patent or trade secret protection, or both or neither.

To qualify for utility patent protection, your IP must be legally patentable. The law allows patents for machines, methods, processes and compositions of matter, among other things. Specifically ruled out are ideas, concepts and scientific truths. Your IP must also be new, useful and non-obvious. Failing any of those requirements, you can’t obtain a utility patent. It may be possible to qualify for a design patent, though, if your IP is a new and non-obvious ornamental design applied to an article of manufacture as was explained in https://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/43137/20200108/why-inventhelp-is-a-great-resource-for-new-inventors.htm article.

For trade secret protection, your IP must be information that is valuable because it is not generally known, and you must take reasonable actions to prevent it from being revealed.

In general, if your IP is patentable it is also likely eligible for trade secret protection as an alternative. But if you choose to patent your discovery, you give up the ability to maintain it as a trade secret. When the patent is issued it becomes public information and the invention is no longer secret.

On the other hand, anything that cannot be legally patented may be protectable under trade secret laws if keeping it secret creates an economic advantage for its owner.

Term of Protection

A utility patent gives its owner the exclusive right to benefit from the invention for 20 years. Thereafter, anyone can make, sell or use it. Protection for a design patent issues for 14 years. During the protected period, the patent owner can legally enjoin anyone from using the invention without permission. Even someone who invents or discovers it completely on their own cannot legally use it once it’s been patented as you can see from https://www.latinpost.com/articles/143207/20200108/why-new-inventors-need-assistance-from-inventhelp.htm.

A trade secret, though, has no expiration date. The most famous trade secret example is Coca Cola, which has managed to keep its soft drink formula a trade secret for more than 120 years. Had they patented the formula, it would have entered the public domain 100 years ago, and perhaps ended their business.

A trade secret does lose its protected status, however, when it becomes generally or publicly known. A company whose trade secret is illegally disclosed may be able to claim damages from the offending party, but once out of the bag, the cat can never be put back in.

Trade secret protection also does not prevent anyone from developing the identical information completely on their own, and using it to their benefit or making it public.

A patent keeps out the competition during the patent’s term (twenty years from filing). That means that you can charge higher prices for the patented product, and make more money. Stated in another way, you get “monopoly profits”. This is the government’s reward to you for making the invention in the first place.

Why would the government want to reward me with a patent?

Research and development is costly. A lot less R&D gets done when these costs cannot be recovered.

An invention which you never make is an invention which is never used by you (during the term of the patent) to make monopoly profits. An invention which you never make is an invention which is never used by your competitors (after the patent expires) to make ordinary profits. These missing profits, both yours and theirs, never get taxed. The government doesn’t like this as you can read from https://inspirationfeed.com/how-inventhelp-can-help-you-protect-your-invention/.

At the same time, direct government funding of all R&D is unworkable. Suppose that the government had spent billions of tax dollars to develop (say) new automotive technology. The automobile companies would get rich, and would pay somewhat higher taxes. Yet these billions of tax dollars which were paid to the automobile companies would now no longer be available to be spent somewhere else — perhaps education, or health care. Yes, we would all have somewhat nicer automobiles. We would also all have less-educated children, and sicker elderly parents.

It is far better — politically, practically, and morally — to do two things. First, encourage the private funding of R&D. Second, arrange for the R&D to be ultimately paid for by the people who benefit from it. Let the people who buy a new car every two years be the ones to pay the higher sticker prices — higher sticker prices which are needed to fund R&D. Let the rest of us (with the older automobiles) have better-educated children, and healthier elderly parents — things which we’d choose to have rather than having somewhat nicer automobiles.

This private funding of R&D is easy to encourage. Every automobile company will invest heavily in R&D when it knows that the other automobile companies can’t steal the resulting technology. A patent prevents this kind of theft as described in https://www.oddee.com/how-inventhelp-can-assist-new-inventors/ post.

What is true of R&D is also true of your R&D. Your invention, if patented, will — at least on average — make money for the government as well as for you. The government therefore grants you a patent.

The surface of a road should not be sliding because the tires are seized but. It must be clean and uniform.

The texture necessary to prevent slippage is communicated to the surface at the time of its construction. If the surface becomes too smooth due to use, with several treatments its primitive texture is regenerated.

Flexible roads carry a layer of asphalt or “macadam” (tarmac). Asphalt is prepared with relatively large stones, embedded in tar.

The “macadam” is made with smaller stones, in contact with each other and attached to the road by a layer of tar. Although the “macadam” is cheaper, the elastic resistance of the asphalt adds to the total resistance of the road. On the other hand, asphalt is more water resistant. A careful investigation of the smallest details improves the quality of road surfaces. The choice of stone to use is very important. Certain types of stone wear easily and do not provide a good grip on the surface.

The correct tar thickness is also very important: if it is small, the surface stones soon separate; if it is too large, the surface is sticky in summer. Ice on roads is a very dangerous threat, mainly in sharp bends and slopes. Those places that represent an excessive danger can be heated in winter, to prevent ice from forming on its surface. For this, an electrical resistance network is available at its base, which works by automatic methods.

Once we have the materials ready, a special vehicle distributes the concrete over the metal mesh structures, just after another machine will slowly pass over eliminating lumps and water pockets that are produced in the concrete, leaving it well leveled while it hardens.

In any case, this smoothing work will be completed manually by the road operators. To avoid the slippage that we have mentioned before, the road surface is scratched with a rake creating grooves that will give the tires an extra grip. Once this is done, simply apply asphalt layers as necessary.

In India, IRB Infrastructure with Virendra Mhaiskar as their chairman is the leading road construction company that uses the latest road building technology and machinery. They are building some of the most modern roads and highways in the world.

A patent is a legal right granted by the US Federal Government to prevent other people from using a particular idea.

To obtain a patent, you have to go through an application process with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to determine whether your idea is new.

This process will usually take a couple of years. Due to the patent process being regulated by federal law, the process is the same for all of the states.

Before releasing your idea into the marketplace, you may want to consider applying for patent protection. Patent protection may require a substantial investment depending on the complexity of your idea as you can read from https://www.techtimes.com/articles/246245/20191127/why-inventhelp-is-essential-for-entrepreneurs.htm.

Many inventors like to perform a search through previous inventions before deciding whether to apply for a patent themselves. This search is a good way to get a feel for whether your invention is on the cutting edge of your particular technical field before investing in a patent application.

There are plenty of quality options for having someone perform a patent search for you. There are a couple of drawbacks to this approach though.

First, you have to disclose your idea to someone else. While it is very unlikely that whoever is performing your search will try to use your idea for themselves, it is certainly understandable that you want to try to disclose your idea to as few people as possible.

Second, the searcher will perform the search only once and in a close time frame to when you first enlist their services. So, if you are not ready to file your application immediately after having the search performed, it is entirely possible that a new application could be filed between when the search was performed and when you are ready to file your application.

The patent process can seem a bit overwhelming if you are entirely new to it. A goal of Patent agencies, such as InventHelp, is to help you make sense of the patent process. The better you understand the process the more it allows you to be involved in the process of securing the highest quality patent protection for your invention.

After all, no one knows your invention better than you do!

Only invention doesn’t mean that it is qualified for filing patent invention. The invention should be useful, original, unique and of great design. Before going for a patent filing, it is required to make sure that the invention is qualified enough to obtain a patent.

After identify the type of patent, it’s time to fill the patent application form. This process requires a patent attorney to support in the application process. The patent attorney can fill and answer any questions related with the invention on behalf of the inventor. The filing process includes the details of the invention, how it actually works, designs and so on. Patent attorney can successfully respond to the entire patent application requirement by applying the knowledge of patent law.

Once done, it is required to check and verify the information filled in the patent application. It is required to ensure that correct invention description, functions, and advantages are filled in the patent application form. The name of inventor/inventors along with the invention name should be communicated in the patent application form. You can find detailed explanation on https://www.ispot.tv/brands/dQR/inventhelp.

The next should be followed by filing the patent application form. The application of patent can be filed in two ways. One is called the manual filing and the other is the electronic filing. Manual filing is submitting of the patent application form directly in the patent office. All the three types of patents can be filed by using the manual filing system.

Filing a patent requires fees. The fee structure depends on the type of petition and the time of filing the patent application. More fees are charged for quick processing of the patent application form as written in this post on https://www.tmcnet.com/topics/articles/2018/06/13/438460-how-inventhelp-change-business-destiny.htm.

The submitted form reaches the patent examiner. The patent will be approved or denied as per the examination of the patent examiner. If the patent is approved, the patent filer will receive the patent approval letter from the patent office. The patent processing requires more than a year. To get a patent, it is necessary to file for one that is original, productive and something new and unique.

You have invented a unique idea and want to make sure that no one copies your idea; do you know what you need to keep your idea under security? The answer is a patent that will prevent others from imitating the concept and prove the invention is purely yours. But you need to know what a patent is before you file a petition to get a patent.

A patent is a document that provides details of the invention. More importantly, it contains legal rules and obligations that prevent others for practicing (using) the invention without the knowledge of the owner. Patent rights can be applied and granted to individual inventors, corporate groups or group of inventors.

However, before submitting a patent application form and getting a patent, it is necessary to be educated on the patent types and ways of obtaining one. The first step is to identify the type of patent, as mentioned on https://www.licensingexpo.com/vibe, before you apply for a patent.

There are three type of patent. They are:

Utility Patent: This patent type is reserved for products invented for the benefits of society in general. This type of patent lasts for a maximum of twenty years with effect from the day it is granted.

Design Patent: This patent is granted for modifications of an existing invention or product. However, the new invention should have improved functionalities and should not affect the function of the existing one. Design patent lasts for a period of fourteen years from the date and year of filling.

Plant Patent: As the name suggest, this patent is applicable for invention of reproductive plant variety. The validity of the plant patent lasts for twenty years with effect from the patent date.

After knowing about the details of the type of patent, it’s time to conduct a market research. This is searching of similar patents on inventions to ensure and satisfy that the invention is purely original. The suggested idea is to visit a patent depository office and get the details of the patent invention records and database. A free patent repository library is also a way of getting the result. This will support to a great extent in the patent research program. For more useful info about patenting process you can visit https://www.dailypress.com/blogs/dp-ugc-article-inventhelp-provides-the-necessary-help-to-nav-1-2019-01-03-story.html.

Patent lawyers also termed as patent agents are lawyers who have that authority to stand as guide for inventors in the patent process. The person has to represent the client by making sure that all documents are in accordance with the law and in connection with what the invention is supposed to stand. There are not much of patent lawyers in the whole world for this is a specialization which requires much more tests.

First and foremost, patent lawyers must have acquired license from the Patent and Trademarks Office in order to function as such. There is a process to be followed before you will be granted the title. A test conducted by the Patent and Trademarks Office must first be passed in order to get approval as you can read from https://www.linkedin.com/company/inventhelp as well.

Though these lawyers can have their own private practice, most of patent lawyers concentrate on the specialized job. Lawyers have much to do with the patent process. The Patent and Trademark Office has even recommended having a legal counsel in the person of patent lawyers to help inventors in the process of patent.

Application is really a delicate job to do. Lawyers are the one to prepare the documents for their clients. Each statement must be checked carefully and must be further checked for lacking information. One lacking detail can cause the application to be rejected. The documentation process is considered to be vital and delicate and a lawful attorney is the right person to do the job.

There are times when a certain invention may not be approved by the PTO. During these times the inventor must not lose sight of the goal for a reconsideration r appeal is acceptable. A good lawyer to do the documents including letters of appeal must be in action. There has to be a strong defense for the invention to be approved. If objections are resolved then the process will be approved.

Lawyers play an important role in the whole process of application for patent. Candidates should really be the ones who possess the characteristics of a focused person. This is primarily the reason why there has to be a test in order to be one with the team. Like any other specializations in the field of law, this has to embody the real essence of a different branch of law.

It can be considered a great need to have people knowledgeable with the process to be able to build that confidence on the client that everything is taken care of well. It is common knowledge that not all inventors are attorneys and that they have special needs. The process is so delicate that a focused mind is needed to analyze all the documents to make it free from errors and lacking details. You can find many more tips on patenting process from https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Inventhelp.

Patenting is a process which involves filing up the patent application and conducting through patent search. If you have an invention which is unique and holds promise for future use then you can apply for patent.

However, make sure that you do understand the essence of patenting before filling the patent application. Patent is a legal right provided by the civil servant or the government representative to an individual or an entrepreneur for a unique and novel invention.

As per the patenting process, the inventor makes disclosure of the novel invention thus created. The disclosure is made by the individuals in written to the patent examiner. An application is filed by the inventor in which a particular invention is disclosed.

Together with the disclosure of the invention, drawings outlining the components of inventions are projected. The drawings are helpful in making the claims as it help in distinguishing as to how the invention is different from others as was described in https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/inventhelp article. However, if you are applying for a process or idea to be patented then the drawing might not be that useful.

The second step of patenting involves hiring of patent attorney. A patent attorney helps in applying for the Patent. As he is aware of the legal procedure of filling the patent application, he can prove really helpful in dealing with the patenting process.

As mentioned earlier the patenting process isn’t easy. Once you are done with the application filling process, the patent examiner would scrutinize your application. Random searches would be conducted by the examiner to make sure that the claims made by you are true and not fabricated.

The working of the invention and its usefulness would also be checked by the examiner. If the patent examiner feels that amendments are required to make in the patent application then he or she would ask the applicant to do so. Once the amendments are made and the application is filled by keeping the patent laws, patent would be granted to the invention for a particular set of time.

Patenting is bliss for the entrepreneurs and inventors who have come up with a novel idea. But one would be required to go through the painful process of patenting to get the patent. Remember without hard work no goals can be achieved. If you have put efforts in coming up with the invention then put some more efforts to go through the patenting process. There are really good helpful guides such as this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/INPEX.

No matter how hard and difficult the process might appears to you it is going to yield profits as you would get to earn from your innovation. Moreover, the patenting would prevent yous innovation from being misused by others.

Once someone has developed an idea, and has taken the necessary steps of consulting a patent attorney or patent law firm, they usually wonder what happens next. Of course the legal representative will explain the process of getting a patent, but it’s advantageous to have some advance knowledge of how the process works and what the inventor can do while waiting for a decision from the Patent Office.

If the a patent attorney has already filed a patent application for the invention, then that suggests that a successful, comprehensive patent search has found that no similar patents. Once a patent application has been filed, the applicant’s status is referred to as “Patent Pending”. The next step in the application process is referred to as the “patent prosecution” phase, which generally proceeds as follows:

First, an examiner from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) reviews the application to make a decision on whether the invention is patentable. The USPTO provides a manual (Manual of Patent Examination Procedure) to help them determine what is patentable as you can read on http://classifieds.usatoday.com/blog/business-spotlight/business-spotlight-inventhelp/.

For example, slogans, logos and names are considered trademarks, while music, art and writings fall under the category of copyrights. These types of intellectual property are not patentable. Patentable subject matter would include: business methods, processes, compositions, products and machines. The examiner must ensure that the actual invention falls within one of the established categories of patentable subject matter.

If the examiner finds that the request falls within one of the acceptable categories, the USPTO must then investigate whether the patent is for an actual new invention of a product or process. The patent office will conduct another detailed search to help determine if the invention is new. Should there be a similar patent pending application, the inventor with the earlier date of invention gets awarded the patent. (The date of invention is legally established as the date when the inventor has proven it works, or the day on which a workable process was conceived).

Once the patent prosecution phase is underway at the USPTO, the company or entrepreneur will have completed and signed documentation that can be used as evidence of their conception of the idea. The inventor can then claim ownership of the product, composition, process or machine. As such, they should start labeling the product or process awaiting decision on the patent application as “patent pending”. Appropriate markings on the product or process include: “pat. pend”, “pat. pending”, or “patent applied for”, followed by the application number.

This gives warning to others that the inventor may be able to bring a legal suit against any individual or company who utilizes, copies or sells an invention if the patent is awarded. Those who infringe a patent could be sued for damages as well as back-dated and future royalties and have their productions or manufacturing processes seized.

After eighteen months, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office publishes the application. (note: An inventor can request Non-Publication at the time of patent filing to avoid publication.) However, should the USPTO publish it prior to the patent being granted, the inventor has provisional rights during the patent-pending stage and can sue for damages from the date the application was published. Once the patent application is approved, all patent rights begin and infringement issues may be pursued as was explained in https://www.collegian.psu.edu/xpert_advice/article_1c0ae35e-1916-11e9-a355-13e0947b8cdc.html article.

Patent protection allows the creator of an idea to exclude others from making, using or selling the product, method or process. The patent owner can then sell rights to companies or other parties in exchange for royalty payments or some other form of compensation. An inventor should therefore seek patent protection for their invention as soon as possible.