Patent Pending means that the person has asked for a patent and the application has not yet been granted or denied. If someone puts patent pending on a box, that might have been accurate when they put it on the box but may not be accurate now.

To sort out what things are patented on beach... View More

A United States Patent Applies to the United States.

A United States Patent applies to actions in the United States. So making a product in China and importing to the US would be covered. Also making a product in the US and exporting to Canada would be covered.

However, a... View More

This is a public forum and not the place to share your innovative concepts. I encourage you to share the nuances of your idea only with a patent attorney that you are interviewing to hire. The attorney-client privilege attaches early so you can share confidential information to interview... View More

There is no rule prohibiting two patents from issuing with the same title. What is unique about a patent is the patent number and the patent claims.

I do not have an example in my issued patents as I go out of my way to avoid using the same title as I find it confusing to have more than... View More

There is not a regional patent for North America. One can obtain a patent in the United States, and separate patents in Canada and Mexico. The patent examiners in the three states negotiate the terms of the patent claims independently with the invention owner and thus the final outcome may lead... View More

I am not aware of a rule that precludes having two patent applications with the same title. As a practical matter, I avoid doing so but I am not aware of a rule that will prevent it. If both applications issue as patents, they will be unique based on the patent number even if they have identical... View More

Jeff,

Google Patents notes that your patent expired in 2006 for failure to pay a maintenance fee. You may want to discuss this with your patent attorney. There are ways to pay for an unintentional failure to pay a maintenance fee to revive a patent that lapsed for failure to pay the... View More

The first stage of this problem is not a patent question. Seems that at the core, that you had a contract with someone to do something for you. You said that you paid and provided material for them to use on the project and they did not perform. You should start with contact with an attorney... View More

It would need to be something very unusual to get a patent on the specifics of the thread geometry. Virtually every possible combination of handedness, threadform, thread angle, lead, pitch, starts, has been done. There seems to be more appetite in the USPTO to grant patents for orthopedic bone... View More

This is not a patent question so I will defer to an attorney in your state to give you a formal answer.

To get some background on copyright from a reliable source. Here is a link to the Frequently Asked Questions Page by the US Copyright Office.... View More

To augment the earlier answer, a US patent would apply to something made in Canada and then shipped into the US. US patent would cover something made in the US and shipped into Canada.

US patent would NOT cover something used in Canada that was made in Canada or a country other than US... View More

The scope of a patent is defined by the claims. Claim interpretation is hard as it is a mix of concrete details and some more abstract aspects. But each of their independent claims has some specific requirements. So in short, they do not have a patent on every possible way to sell pastels.... View More

There have been a number of questions of this type. There is often confusion between two different concepts: inventorship and ownership.

An inventor is someone that made a non-obvious contribution to the project that ended up in at least one claim in the issued patent. The inventors are... View More

No.

The acceptance of a provisional patent application is a clerical matter. They just make sure that you submitted something and paid the fee. It is hard to not get a filing receipt for a provisional patent application.

To get a non-provisional patent application granted takes... View More

It counts with respect to being able to say that you are patent pending. (at least for the year that it is pending)

It counts in that you can sell the product or otherwise publicly reveal the idea without losing absolute novelty that is needed in some patent systems. (at least for the... View More

Your question did not clearly state what man or what patents. But as a general matter, it is not unusual for leading scientists working for the United States to be named as inventors on patents. That is required under our Constitution. However, being named as an inventor is not the same as... View More

The process to discern patent term has a number of pieces to it. However, here it is easy as the PCT application was filed October 4, 1996 and the twenty year term ended October 4, 2016. There is no indication of Patent Term Adjustment to add days to the end of the patent.

Just because... View More

If this project is so important to you that you consider it your life's work, then you should be working closely with a business attorney with the right skills to write non-disclosure/non-use agreements that are tailored to this situation and facilitate your ability to sue for significant... View More

A great place to start is to call your corporate attorney. Most of my referrals here in North Carolina come from corporate attorneys that work with high tech startups.

Another good place is to check in with the state's Small Business Development Center as they know which patent... View More

I am glad that you are taking care with this choice. Picking a patent attorney is different than some other limited tasks like buying a house. You need someone with the right legal skills and the right technical knowledge. You also need someone that you can work with as an external team member... View More