Things You Should Know About Patents
Worcester Business Journal:
1. Expensive Proposition
Don’t underestimate the time and cost. Patents are expensive, typically costing many thousands of dollars to have prepared and filed. Once filed, they often pend for several years before being approved.
2. Details, Details
A patent application must describe an invention in enough detail so someone “skilled in the art” can make and use the invention without undue experimentation.
3. Overseas Rules
Most foreign countries do not provide any one-year grace period, thus any public use or disclosure of an invention immediately prevents filing for a patent on that invention in most foreign countries.
4. Exceptions
If an invention has been offered for sale for MORE than one year, or has been in public use for MORE than one year, or was published MORE than one year ago, in most cases you no longer can file for patent protection on it.
5. Grace period
In the United States, if you publicly disclose an invention (offer for sale, publicly use, or publish in a publication), you have one year to file for patent protection on that invention. This grace period is for the U.S. only.
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