Congratulations on being an inventor on a US patent. You can download a PDF of the patent at https://patents.google.com/patent/US10337727B2/en?oq=10337727 and then print the patent out.

If you want the patent on some thicker stock, you can buy one from the USPTO for $3. I have not done... View More

I am sorry, this is not a patent law question. Perhaps you thought the category was paRents instead of paTents.

Good luck in resolving your situation.

Kevin E Flynn

I do not think that the lapsed patent can be reinstated in accordance with the rules as the failure to pay was not unintentional under USPTO guidelines.

Traditionally, not having the money to pay a fee was not considered a reason that something was unintentional. See

C.... View More

I do not know the rules in South Africa. Software can be patented in the United States but normally the patent is on how the software makes the computer or related equipment do their jobs better. A new digital file type may fall under this category.

It is much harder than it used to be... View More

You can use Google Patents or the USPTO search tool. There are other tools and some that focus on patents or patent applications filed outside of the US but these two are where I would normally start.

Here is a link to some tips on using these tools. http://bit.ly/Patent_Searching... View More

I have not looked at the cited published application but here is information to get you started.

Monitoring recently issued patent applications is smart. It allows an opportunity to submit relevant prior art for consideration by the Patent Examiner see... View More

Raising money is a skill. Most patent attorneys do not have that skill. You may want to get some free advice and some introduction from this state agency...http://floridasbdc.org

I hope this helps

Kevin E Flynn

Technically, a patent does not infringe on an earlier patent. You are free to file patents on improvements to an earlier issued patent.

You may not be able to make your improved product that is subject of the later patent until the earlier patent has expired or lapsed.

I have not... View More

If you have sufficient bargaining power, you can sell your product to individuals with a different deal to different groups.

So you can license one company to get the hats with a logo but you might control that you would be paid to apply to logo to the hat and build the profit margin in.... View More

This is not easy as the USPTO tools for searching fields such as name do not apply to patents from that time frame.

The assignment database goes back to 1980. The full text search tool on USPTO goes back to 1976. While the images of the earlier patents can be retrieved by patent number,... View More

It is possible that the product you are looking at is not covered by a current patent.

The best place to start is with the product itself and the packaging that comes with the product. There is an incentive to mark the patent number on the product or at least a web page address that... View More

Your question which seems narrow is actually at the heart of patent claim interpretation. In the United States, there is a hierarchy of sources for answering this question. The highest tier is what the applicant expressly wrote in the application or in the written record of arguments made to the... View More

You should be OK as long as this piece is not special and does not have a patent just on that piece. A person that has purchased a patented item can make repairs. There is a limit and you cannot do such massive repairs to a totally worn out item that you are effectively replacing the original... View More

Maintenance fee window opens 3 years from issue date of patent. The window closes 4 years from the issue date. The process repeats at year 7 and year 11.

Purposeful failure to renew causes the patent to lapse. Unintentional failure to pay during the window can be fixed with payment of... View More

Short answer is that I do not know.

Good news is that there are several free online tools to do patent searching. I gave a talk on these tools

October 2016 presentation at the RTP Frontier as part of the lecture series for Triangle TechBreakfast. Teaches entrepreneurs on how to... View More

This does not sound like a fit for the patent system.

35 USC 101

Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and... View More

A patent only applies in the country or regional group that issued the patent. A patent applies to things made in that country and to things brought into that country. If a product is created outside the US and never enters the US, then a US patent is not relevant.

Many companies will... View More

A UK patent is a UK patent. There is not yet an EU patent. You can get your patent application examined by the European Patent Office so you only have to do that work once, but the allowed EPO claims are then validated in individual EPO countries such as the UK. So one patent application may end... View More

Your question as conveyed did not include the patent number. But you said design. If the patent is a design patent, (rather than the more common utility patent), then that is normally pretty narrow coverage to keep someone from selling a product that looks confusingly similar to the patented... View More

Or is a red flag to Examiners so try to avoid it. Sometimes you cannot.

Not sure where you are getting the verbiage "or combination thereof" . That is not a standard way to write a claim. A quick search of US patents found many thousands with the word "combination"... View More