Expert: George H. Morgan, P.E., Patent Agent - 1/8/2011

Question
Hello George,
first of all thank you very much for your time answering me these questions, i just want to know the following:

- how wide can my patent be? (for example if i want to patent a method of doing something, and i say "get this and this parameters of the computer..." nobody else can do that way?
- i have to hire some person to search if theres a similar patent, before i put my patent? is there a posibility that he or she steals the patent, or we sign a contract for that?
- do you have some webpage to read about successul storys about people that sold their patents?

thank you very much for your help

best regards

frank

Answer
Your patent application claims can be as broad as you think will be accepted. What the examiner allows is a different matter, depending both on your specification descriptions, and more importantly, prior art.

You can go the the uspto.gov site and do a preliminary key word search to get an idea what is out there.

You don't have to hire someone, but usually any patent practitioner is want to do a search prior to writing the application, because having a good handle on what is out there is most important for writing good claims.  (If your claims have to be narrowed, for acceptance by the examiner, you lose some of the benefits of the doctrine of equivalence.)

I don't know of any web site with tales of successful inventors, other than some very doubtful sites by invention promotion scammers. (Beware of them, their name is Legion!)

My web site, http://www.evansville.net/biz/patagent has an inventors' resources page with a link to the RJRiley web site that lists many of the firms you need to be very cautious about dealing with.

If you have a good patent, the interested companies, who monitor the awarded patents and the published applications, if they can't get around it, will contact you. Otherwise, with some exceptions of members of the Licensing Executive's Society (LES) you are on your own.

I suggest you visit my web site & review the book review page for helpful texts. I do suggest you peruse "Patent It Yourself" by David Pressman, before you spend any money. It is in most public libraries. Or, you can buy it from Nolo Press out in Berkeley, California. A new one costs approx. $40. Or, Edward R. Hamilton, Bookseller, who has a web page, has an inventory of 13th editions for approx. $ 7.95, and that is the almost latest edition, and adequate for your purposes.

If you have your search done with a licensed practitioner, i.e. Patent Agent or patent attorney, you have a relatively good level of protection, because we worked too hard for that certification and we don't want to defraud a client and risk disbarment or prison. Besides we are too busy working on our own projects & writing patent applications to want to steal someone's idea. (Keep in mind, most ideas are literally a dime a dozen!)

I do hope this helps.

Best wishes on your project.

George H. Morgan
Patent Agent