Did you enter into a contract with the inventor? If not, then no.

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

Not simply "an attorney". It must be a patent attorney (or a patent agent). Make sure that you are looking at patent attorneys only.

There are many places on the internet (such as reddit) where you can discuss the patenting process, and the advantage/disadvantage of getting a patent for your business.

You do not need to worry about what you need to get for a patent. That will be the job of your patent attorney. What... View More

It is possible for someone to start up another coupon site. You just have to be outside of the scope of the claims. In this particular case, the four patents have very long independent claims, suggesting that one should be able to work around these claims.

If you are trying to start an... View More

You should be able to contact the patent owner, and make a deal with the owner just like you would for leasing or buying a car, a machine, or a factory.

But before you do reach out to the patent owner, you should talk to a patent attorney. There are several things that the attorney should... View More

This is a very common problem. I presume that you want to have your name on the patent as one of the co-inventors so that you can put it on your resume/CV, and not get an ownership stake in the patent.

If you really have a good argument to be listed as a co-inventor, reach out to the... View More

Only to a specific country.

A government can grant a patent only within a jurisdiction of its own country. It cannot grant rights to people and businesses outside of its jurisdiction.

However, if someone patents something in one country, generally, another person cannot get a... View More

No, I am sorry, but there really is no way to do that. You'll need to hire an attorney to fight it.

In some countries, the judgment of a court in the US is not-enforceable. If you don't have any property to be seized in the US, and there is no way to collect it in India, it is... View More

Games are typically tough to get a patent on. They are often protected by copyright and trademark. You should seek out an attorney that does all three area of IP law.

For someone to answer that, you'll need to hire a patent searcher to do a search, and a patent attorney who will issue a patent landscape opinion or a patentability opinion depending on why you are asking this question. $x0,000

Sorry. :(

This is one of the most frequently asked questions. You can't get funding without patents, and you can't get a patent without money. It is a Catch-22.

Here are some guidelines:

(1) You need to recognize that ideas by themselves are not protectable. If you have an idea... View More

That depends on factors, including whether the programmer was an employee or a contractor, whether the programmer owned it prior to the installation onto the server or it was done specifically for the company, and whether the person was paid for the work of writing the program, etc.

Patent lawyers very deal with international patent law on a daily basis. The way it works is that we are hired by a client who tells us which countries patent protection is needed, and we then coordinate patent work for our clients in all of those countries via local associates... View More

Well, the point of patents is to prevent you from doing exactly what you are trying to do.

However, you should be able to copy someone else's patented product if somehow you don't infringe (you are outside the scope of the claims of the patent), or there is a problem with the... View More

A patent typically costs about $20k to $40K

Patented products typically carry patent markings. Something like "pat. no. 12,345,xxx" and like. Once you have that, you go find the patent in the U.S. Patent Office databases.