Sure, you can file a patent application, and there are plenty of help out there for pro se inventors. One of the best books on how to do this is "Patent It Yourself" by David Pressman from NOLO Press.

However, it is not easy to write a patent application, and it is even harder... View More

That is a very good question. Patent lawyers may have their own views on answering this question, but this is a question about public policy, which may be answered by an economist or a knowledgeable policy expert.

Here a few of my thoughts to answer your question.

- Companies... View More

Here are some of the patents that Solatube Int'l Inc. has in South Africa:

ZA2012/00018 - SKYLIGHT COLLIMATOR WITH MULTIPLE STAGES

ZA2012/00569 - SKYLIGHT COVER WITH PRISMATIC DOME AND CYLINDER PORTIONS

ZA2012/04238 - DIRECT AND INDIRECT LIGHT DIFFUSING DEVICES AND... View More

If someone is infringing your product or process, you need to see a patent litigation attorney.

The first thing that the attorney will do is to investigate whether the company is actually infringing your patent. By "infringing your patent", I mean that the company is making or... View More

Sorry, but there is really not much that can be done now.

Firstly, patents expire. When a patent expires, the owner is not able to enforce it anymore. Your father's patent, if i issued in 1968, would have expired in 1985.

If the patent expired in 1985, and if someone... View More

I do not know what patents cover selfie sticks, but generally when someone says that they have a patent for product, they typically have a patent on only certain kind of a product.

So, for hypothetically, a "selfie stick patent" may claim a selfie stick that attaches the camera... View More

I am sorry to read about your loss.

If your late husband was employed, almost certainly the patents that he was an inventor on were owned by the employer and not by your husband. If so, then he did not have any rights to the patents. The employer can do with the patents and patent... View More

This is a type of a very common question. It is tough to get a patent on this improvement if Suma is just adding a known ingredent to a known composition and it acts in a known manner. It will certainly be rejected by the Examiner as obvious under KSR rationale (A).

Here is how I... View More

You can get a patent easy. Make an invention based on your ideas, talk to a patent attorney, pay him lots of money, and he'll get your patent.

But, you should understand what a patent is. It is a business tool. It is a way of making money. It is similar to buying a tractor, or a... View More

NO. You cannot resubmit your patent application if it has been dead for 10 years.

(Think about it. How would it be fair if you apply for a patent, the Patent Office rejects it, the file is closed, other companies in the industry see your published patent application knowing that the... View More

OK, so here is the situation. You have two separate issues: (1) can you make and sell your energy drink?, and (2) can you patent it to keep others from copying your invention? The first question is typically the more important one.

(1) To make sure that you do not infringe on other... View More

I am sorry to hear about your tribulations, but regarding the patent: you do not own the patent. You assigned your rights to the invention to the Deparment of Energy in December 2012, after the patent application was filed but before the patent issued.

It is not your patent, and the DoE... View More

Yes, that is correct: each of the inventors has a right to do with the patent rights as he pleases, without accounting or profit sharing with others.

In this case, though, you do have to be very careful that the rights were not actually assigned to the California LLC, and that if there was... View More

There is nothing to negotiate -- the patent is expired. The patent expired on 11/30/2018 due to non-payment of maintenance fee.

Feel free to use anything in the patent however you want.

Source:... View More

No. You cannot patent it.

The reason that you cannot patent it is that you are simply doing what people have been doing since the mid/late 1980s. You are just applying it to a new area.

As an aside, I am not sure I understand the nature of your statement that it is the... View More

Yes, this is common. Inventor A gets a patent for an invention, and then inventor B files for an improvement to the invention. Inventor A cannot practice the improved version because inventor B has a patent on it, and Inventor A cannot practice either the original invention nor the improved... View More

Yes, I believe that it should be patentable.

What I like about our invention as far as patenting it goes, is that it is a combination of three parts: a holding technique, a way to assemble parts of the kit, and a drumming technique.

However, be prepared to face two very large... View More

When the term of the patent or the copyright expires.

The idea of a patent is a contract between an inventor and the public, as represented by the government. The inventor discloses the invention, which is valuable to the public, to the society, and gets something in return. The inventor... View More

You may be out of luck.

Good companies listen to their customers. Often, a company is told of an idea by its customer, supplier, vendor, employee, etc., and the company develops the idea into an invention, which is then patented.

If you pitched your invention to company, then... View More

Take a look at the package. There should be some information on it about patents. Or there should be a website, shick would have that information.