Your questions lead to the issue of patentability (whether your new idea can get a patent) and freedom-to-operate (whether existing patents that are still in force apply to your product).

My slide set at http://bit.ly/Patent_Searching goes through this distinction.

If you found... View More

Put another way, a patent is a fence around your orchard that keeps people from stealing apples. If you do not have anything of value within the fence, then it is not clear why you built a fence.

Secondly, the patent office cares very little if you bring a solution from one field and use... View More

Yes this design patent is expired. See https://patents.google.com/patent/USD355685S/en?oq=D355685

If the product has an issued patent, then the patent owners should mark the product with the patent number. If the product cannot be marked (for example contact lenses), then you mark the packaging that is delivered to the consumer. Failure to mark can lead to forfeiture of damages so there is a... View More

I try to give answers that are useful to many people using this system rather than getting into the weeds.

First, in order to infringe a patent claim, you need to have every noun, verb, and other limitation present in at least one independent claim in the patent while the patent is in... View More

First, it is not uncommon for one patent application that covers different inventions or different aspects of the same invention to end up being published multiple times as the applicant seeks different clusters of claims covering different claim scope. This happens all the time. I go out of my... View More

To add on to the earlier answer, there are two other reasons why you may be seeing patent activity on something that has been around for a while. While it is true that significant improvements continue to be made to things like the telephone more than 100 years after Bell filed his US patent, in... View More

I notice that the patent in question is a design patent. So for you to be a co-inventor, you would need to have made a contribution to the novel ornamental appearance of the shudder slat.

There is a mechanism to sue to get the list of inventors corrected under 35 USC Section 256 See... View More

Patent term is more confusing than it should be. The one part that is simple, is that patent term is not a function of the technology. There is not a way for the applicant to apply to extend the patent term (unlike trademarks or copyrights). (but as noted below, there are things that can shorten... View More

Mr. Mlynek is correct that failing to file a non-provisional application within the one year of filing a provisional application is not a violation of a rule. It does mean that you lose the ability to claim the benefit of the earlier filing date of the provisional application. Depending on what... View More

There are a lot of fees in the process. However, if the fee that you mean is the periodic maintenance fee to keep an issued patent from expiring, you may be in luck.

Many new patent owners forget to pay this fee. If the failure to pay this fee was unintentional as you forgot that you... View More

You may want to start with this slide set http://bit.ly/Protecting_Advantages to introduce yourself to protecting your competitive edge. The United States Patent and Trademark Office has their own guidance on the differences between patent, trademark, and copyright at... View More

The answer from Mr. Mlynek is very good. To approach this from a different angle, I suggest that you look carefully at the claims that were issued in the patent that does not list your name. Look for something that appears in the claims that is inventive that you contributed to the process.... View More

Note -- it is possible that a second application was filed either as a continuation of the application you found or they started over. You need to check on this before proceeding.

Yes. Ownership rights to a patent can be transferred by an assignment. Partial rights can be transferred by license.

Assignments should be recorded at the USPTO at https://epas.uspto.gov/. Prior recorded transfers can be seen at https://assignment.uspto.gov/patent/index.html for patent... View More

Short answer is yes, you have exposure.

35 USC Section 271a states -- Except as otherwise provided in this title, whoever without authority makes, uses, offers to sell, or sells any patented invention, within the United States or imports into the United States any patented invention during... View More

The answer from Mr. Mlynek has much truth in it.

Let me add some information that my be helpful. First, the US Supreme Court has issued several decisions in the last few years that curtail the ability of the USPTO to grant patents for many business ideas. The section of the law that... View More

To flesh out the answer already given, here are the factors in determining when a patent is no longer in effect. It is more complicated than you might expect but here are the things to look at.

Patent term is more confusing than it should be. The one part that is simple, is that patent... View More

It sounds like you need to do some searching to see if your new idea is already the subject of an issued patent or a pending application that has been published but not yet allowed. If I am right, then you may want to look at my slide set on patent searching. http://bit.ly/Patent_Searching... View More

A product does not infringe the title of a patent, or the abstract, or the drawings and the specification. To be within the scope of the patent owner's ability to exclude, the product needs to infringe at least one claim in a patent that is still in force.

So the first step is to... View More