The Legal Blog

Entrepreneurs want to do it all themselves.

The first few years of a new business are the “grind years”.

With little or no income, a new business owner worries about every penny they spend.

Then it happens.

That AHA! Moment.

You’ve invented the next best thing!

You love your new idea.

It’s Big. Huge. Astronomical!

You are super excited.

But then the worry sets in.

What if someone steals your idea?

What if someone else has the same idea and begins selling it first?

You Know You Need to Protect It with a Patent Application

BUT: hiring a patent attorney to protect your invention is way outside of your budget!

Well at least that’s what you think.

So you read a bit online; find some examples, and DIY it yourself.

WOW – you can file it for as little as $75.

You are high fiving yourself the rest of the day.  

Is that you?

Filing a DIY Patent Application is a Big Mistake!

I know because many inventors who DIY’d their patent application come to me after the fact.

Sometimes months later and even sometimes right before the one year conversion deadline.

And now there’s a problem.  

There’s always a problem.

Here are the Top Three Reasons a DIY Patent Application Will Fail:

1. Incomplete Description

A patent application must describe the invention in sufficient detail to teach a person to make and use the invention.

Submitting your sketches and a brief description of your invention is not enough.

Even when you try your best, you may not include what’s needed.

If your description is incomplete, the patent application will fail.

2. Missing Uniqueness

To be patentable, the prior art must not suggest what is claimed as the invention.

You searched the internet and didn’t find your idea.

But that is never enough.

In the U.S. alone there are over 11 million patents.

Performing a proper patent search to identify the unique parts if your invention is so important.

Because if you don’t clearly identify that uniqueness, the patent application will fail.

3. No Patentable Subject Matter

Not all ideas are patentable. It cannot be one of these:

• Laws of nature
• Natural phenomena
• Mathematical algorithms
• Abstract ideas 

If your idea is categorized in one of these, the patent application will fail.

Your Patent Application Can Succeed!

The good news is, you don’t have to do it alone.

Failure is not inevitable.

𝑯𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒔𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒖𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆.

Ask the inventors who work with me.

When they bring me their provisional application, I find the holes and patch them.  I find the mistakes and correct them.

Even better, inventors who come to me from the beginning know their patent application will not fail!

Do it right OR Do it Over. Which do you choose?

Ready to protect your invention the right way? Contact me here.