Flippa (data bases on buying and selling businesses)
Drafting and obtaining a patent might be the easiest part with respect to a new invention. Marketing a making money off your invention requires not only a lot of skill but also persistance. This section of Ypatent brings together links of interest which may be useful in this endeavor.
Patent Core (this site will analyze your examiner and provide insight on how your examiner will likely decide your case based on prior decisions).
Terminal Disclaimers: USPTO eTerminal Disclaimer Resource page
Patent Management, Storage and Billing Software:
NetDocuments AppCol Microsoft365
Helpful Drafting Software:
Drafting Software: Autodesk CadKey (convert any document to pdf; useful for PTO submissions)
Autodesk
www.usa.autodesk.com/
An American Corporartion that focuses on2D and 3Ddesign software for use in architecture, engineering and building construction, manufacturing, and media and entertainment.
CadKey
www.kubotekusa.com/products/cadkey.html
DKEY is a 2D/3D Mechanical CAD (Computer Aided Design or Computer Aided Drafting) software application released for various DOS, UNIX, and Microsoft Windows operating systems.
Cutepdf (convert any document to pdf; useful for PTO submissions)
www.cutepdf.com/
Microsoft Visio (useful for drafting simple drawings)
Drafting and filing a patent application is a time consuming process and takes skill. However, there are many books (including the Complete Patent Kit) which can assist you in this process.
This section of Ypatent contains useful links to help you in drafting a patent application. The links are meant to supplement “The Complete Patent Kit, Third Edition”.
Plant Patents:
The United States has a plant protection system but most countries (e.g., Europe) it is not possible to have a patent on a variety of plant in itself.
This is a type of patent issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that protects a distinct and new variety of plant that has been asexually reproduced.
In the United States, new plant varieties can be protected through three types of intellectual property (IP): plant patents, utility patents, and plant variety protection. Additionally, plant breeders can also protect information of value
Plant Variety Protection:
The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) is an international treaty that provides protection for new plant varieties, and the US is a member.
UPOV PRISMA (over 70 countries covered, including USA; part of WIPO)
USDA Plant Variety Protection (The Plant Variety Protection Office (PVPO) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides intellectual property protection in the form of plant variety protection certificates to breeders of new varieties of seeds, tubers, and asexually propagated plants. The certificates protect varieties for 20 years (25 years for vines and trees).
Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT):
As discussed in the Complete Patent Kit, the PCT allows an applicant/inventor to file say a provisional or US patent application and then within 12 months file a PCT application (typically in the local office) and then within 30 months enter all of the designated countries (e.g., US, Europe, China, Japan, etc) that the applicant wants to obtain protection. Accordingly the PCT allows an applicant an additional 18 months from that 12 months from when the PCT application is filed to make decisions such as whether or not the invention might be patentable (because searches will be done in the PCT) before spending a lot of fees on prosecuting the application in all the designated countries.
How to file your PCT Applicaiton
ePCT filing software (this software is recommended for filing your PCT as it has a lot of checking capabilities) Users using ePCT can log into the system with their WIPO account. See ePCT user guide for how to create a WIPO user account.
Patent Offices:
Canada European Patent Office (general EPO site) European Patent Registrar (contains file wrappers for European filed applications) Great Britain Japan UKAustralia USPTO (recent patent office related notices) USPTO Global Patent Search (search Chinese and other foreign patents)
Free Patent Searchable Databases:
Europe’s networkUSPTO Google Patents IP.com InnovationQ Plus
Patent Lens Google Patent Search TACSY (WIPO) CAMBIA
Freepatentonline (fast patent searching with PDF downloading) WIPO (PCT)
WIPO Gold (one stop searching for patents, trademarks, domain names, etc)
Neifeld (good listing of databases as well as laws) Wiki Patents (reviews and rates patents)
Patent Family Searching:
EPO Common Citation Document EPO Common Citation Document Direct Link
Classification Searching:
Espacenet classificaiton search (enter a US Patent number in the smart search space, pick one of the results, click on one of the classification links you can find on your pulled up result which will bring you up to the CPC code scheme where you can select a seocnd hyperlink of relevant to your invention, this will bring you to a page with a “classificaiton search” tab in the uper left corner, checking the box of desired CPC codes automatically populates the “selected classification” fields, use the “copy to search form” to populate and “advanced search feature” window)
Fee Based Databases:
Digipatenthttp://www.questel.orbit.com/index.htm?subject=http://www.questel.orbit.com/index.htm” style=”color: rgb(128, 128, 0);”>QuestelDialogGlobal Art MicroPatent Lexis Westlaw Delphion IAMcafe IP
PatBase (available for annual fee)
Foreign Patent Information:
CIPAInternational IP SocietyPCT at the WIPO
General Search Engines:
Googleyahoomsndogpile (searches multiple search engines) Searchenginewatch (lists other search engines) clearinghouse (excellent site for search engines by subject) Educationindex (listing of best search engines by subject)
Literature Search Databases
Google Books (search for through thousands of books) Google Scholar (use to find scholarly references) Microsoft Acadmic (allows search by author, conference, journal, organization, year, visualization) IP.com (an excellent resource to search literature that may invalid patents) Science.gov (searches over 60 databases and ofer 2200 selected websites from 15 federal agencies)
Search the Deep Web
Deeperweb (search into the deep web) Dogpile Yippy
Specialized Prior Art Databases:
Proteins/synonyms: Gene Card (searches genes/proteins of interest) IHOP (semilar to Gene Card. Very good search for proteins and the like to obtain synonyms) Brenda (enzyme database)
Clinical Trails: FDA (good for searching clinical trial information and product approval)
Chemical Searching: PubChem Project (from NIH)
Antibody CDR Annotation/numbering (NovoPro) (will find CDRs and FRs in a protein sequence)
Translations: SIPO Machine Translations (chinese to English). Advanced Insutrial Property network
Paid (Professional) Search Companies: Cardinal IP Patent & Trademark SVC Onsite Patent Services Express Search ProQuest Dialog
Plant Patents:
Data Base Searching:
UPOV Plant Variety Database (global DB; more than 1 million variety entries; can use this to find competitors or even collaborators; information in which company the plant production occurs)
Application: (See drafting and filing your patent application)
Before you set out to patent any invention, you should conduct or have some one else conduct a thorough patent search. There are two main reasons for this. First, you will be in a better position to draft your application if you have a thorough knowledge of the prior art in your field. Second, if your search turns up your own invention, you will want to rethink what it is that you exactly want to try to get a patent on or perhaps even forgoe paying the expense of trying to obtain a patent. This section of Ypatent contains helpful links for conducting your patent search.
General Search Engines:
Google yahoo msn dogpile (searches multiple search engines) Searchenginewatch (lists other search engines) clearinghouse (excellent site for search engines by subject) Educationindex (listing of best search engines by subject)
Literature Search Databases
Google Books (search for through thousands of books) Google Scholar (use to find scholarly references) Microsoft Acadmic (allows search by author, conference, journal, organization, year, visualization) IP.com (an excellent resource to search literature that may invalid patents) Science.gov (searches over 60 databases and ofer 2200 selected websites from 15 federal agencies) Science Direct (search books, journal articles) . IEEE xplore (more mechnical electrical) O’Reilly Media, Inc. (formerly Safari) Science Direct
Bibliographic information (correct dates, sites, etc; also remember to right click on pdf which can show creation dates and check Amazon): CAS Source Index (CASSI) Search Tool (provides accurate bibliographic information) WorldCat (find items in libaries near you)
Videos: IET.tv (can browse videos by technology)
Conversions/Numbers
Asknumbers (great tool for finding units having similar values).
Search the Deep Web
Deeperweb (search into the deep web) Dogpile Yippy
Specialized Prior Art Databases:
Proteins/synonyms: Gene Card (searches genes/proteins of interest) IHOP (semilar to Gene Card. Very good search for proteins and the like to obtain synonyms) Brenda (enzyme database)
Clinical Trials: FDA (good for searching clinical trial information and product approval)
FDA Drug & labels: FDA Label Search Daily Med Drugs@FDA
Chemical Searching: PubChem Project (from NIH) . STNext (searches chemical structures; paid site)
Epitope analysis/database: Immune Epitope Database and Analysis Resource
Translations: SIPO Machine Translations (chinese to English). Advanced Insutrial Property network
Paid (Professional) Search Companies: Cardinal IP Patent & Trademark SVC Onsite Patent Services Express Search CPA Global Inc Patent Hawk
Trademark Searching: Thomson Reuters (paid service but very power search engine for trademarks) For the specific trademark searching page of see Trademarks Thomson Reuters
File Wrappers/Prosecution History:
Patent File Wrapper (easy way to bring up docuemnt/prosecution history of US Patent Applications
A lot of inventions are not patentable, even if they are new and non-obvious.
35 USC 101 —
See the US Patent Office Subject Matter eligibility Guidelines
Most information of companies is actually not patented or trademarked. Instead, the information exists in a form of intellectual property called trade secrets. To maintain information as a trade secret, you will need to take steps to insure the secrecy of the information. There are various ways to do this. One instrument which I discuss in my book, “Protect Your Patent” is through the use of confidentiality agreements. Other measures that you can take are security measures such as restricted computer access to information that you want to protect from being divulged to competitors.
Resources for Trade Secrete Law:
The Sedona Conference has many good articles on trade secret protection law. A few of these article direct links are below but you can visit The Sedona Conference website for more articles.
The Sedona Conference Commentary on Protecting Trade Secrets Throughout The Employment Life Cycle, The Sedona Conference Journal, Volume 23, 2022
Commentary on the Governance and Management of Trade Secrets, The Sedona Conference Journal.
Useful Links:
TMEP (Trademark Manual Examination Procedure Manual). Trademark Goods Manual (search for the class for your goods/services) MADRID Protocol (WIPO) Madrid Goods and Services Manager (lets you find the correct goods and international services class) Customs & Border Protection (CBP) (allows you to register your trademark for a fee enforcement)
Domain Name Dispute Resolution (WIPO)
Trademarks can be a very important element to a success of products or a business. The fact that many products in the market are successful is often found it’s path to customer’s hand due to their trademarks which enthrust its contentement to a publicity.
Questions & Answers
How do I know if a name is available to trademark?
USPTO (the Patent & Trademark Office has a trademark section where you can search registered trademarks). TMView (searches across multiple countries) WIPO Global Brand Database
What Information Do You Need to File a Trademark Application ?
For each mark that you seek to register, you would need the following:
1. The name of the mark that you want to register. For the design mark, you should provide a file (gif or jpeg format) through email and explain to show me how you want the mark to appear.
2. The name of applicant of the mark including biographical information such as address.
3. A description of the goods and services for which the mark are to be used.
4. (For the classification, it should suffice, but to be nice, have a description from the application as to the goods and services) TM5 ID List (a list of goods and services from several countries including the USPTO)
5. Indication showing that whether the mark is currently in use or whether the mark intends to be used in the future.
6. Whether the mark has been the subject of any other trademark application in the world.
International Trademark System (the Madrid System):
Madrid System (takes you to the madrid system)
eMadrid (is the actually filing link of the Madrid system above)
You can directly file your trademark in each of the countries you seek protection. Another route is the regional route. For example, EU IPO you can get protection in the 27 member countries of the EPO.
Another option is the international or Madrid route. If you are seeking protection in multiple markets, this system is very convenient. With this system, you can file one form in one language, pay one set of fees and obtain a decision the countries you are interested in a period of 12-18 months. Currently, there are 131 countries which are part of the Madrid System, which is more than 80% of world trade.
You have six months after filing your US trademark application to file for the Madrid System to claim the original filing date of your US application as your priority date
State 1: You first need to have a trademark at least filed in a member country (national office). Your national office will certify the application and send to WIPO.
Stage 2: WIPO will issue a certificate of registration and will let your designated countries know that you are seeking protection.
Stage 3: Your designated offices will evaluate the scope of your protection you are seeking according to their laws with a time period of 12-18 months.
Trademark Search and Monitoring
Since 1978, Copyright exists as soon as you express your original idea onto some tangible medium. Much of the difficulty with copyright law centers around the investigation into whether or not a particular work is subject to a copyright. This is particularly true for older works (those created prior to 1978) where copyright duration may depend on whether or not a renewal was sought and the attachment of a copyright may depend upon whether or not the copyright was registered or whether the work was published with notice of the copyright.
Related Links: Patents for Humanity (an awards process for inventors who invent to help humanity).
Ever wonder why IBM and Microsoft spends millions of dollars obtaining thousands of patents each year? The answer is simple. Patents are an indispensable part of any business. This is even more true for small businesses and individual inventors where good patent protection is often the only way that such inventors can license and make money off their invention. It is also important to know about patents because any product development needs to take into consideration the patent landscape before money is invested in such product development.
But patents are not the only form of intellectual property propection. In some instances, you may be better off keeping your invention a trade secret. A situation might be where it is very easy to design around the claims or your invention but very difficult for one to reverse engineer say a complex process of doing things.
You may want to consider other forms of intellectual property in addition to obtaining a patent.
This section of Ypatent covers several common types of other forms of intellectual property; copyright, trademarks & trade secrets.
Other Agencies not covered in other parts of Website
United States International Trade Commission