Unfortunately, most likely not. Your partner had two options to get a US patent. Either apply directly for a US patent within a year of filing for the Chinese patent, or alternatively file for an international (PCT) patent application, and then apply for a US patent application within 30 months... Read more »

An expired patent cannot be used to obtain royalties or to block the actions of others. But the patent is not worthless. It has been added to the body of knowledge of people. This was part of the deal for obtaining a limited period of exclusivity. The patent may be used to help teach others how... Read more »

Utility patent terms are 20 years from the filing date (plus any possible patent term adjustments). The U.S. patent 4,784,433, "Portable sunshade for infants in vehicles" has expired in 2008. Once a patent expires, it becomes a public property. Everyone can make it or use it without... Read more »

If by "names on the patent", you mean that there are two inventors -- then no.

The patent rights belong to the inventors unless the inventors assign their rights to someone else. Most patents have inventors that are employees that assign their rights to their employers. But... Read more »

The powers of attorney all terminate upon the death of your brother. Any assets owned by your brother would now be owned by his estate. When an estate is opened, the Personal Representative then has the legal authority to act with respect to any assets owned by the estate. If he owned the patent... Read more »

Patent rights are property rights and pass under state laws just as any other type of rights, such as ownership of a house or a car.

You can contact a trust & estate attorney in Maryland for how the relevant laws would apply in this situation.

I hope that this helps.

Kevin E Flynn

You can't. You can't patent something that you did not invent. And you can't patent something that is already available to the public.

Now, if you have an invention that is sufficiently different from, or an improvement over, an existing product, then you should be able to... Read more »

If you really think you have something that would be worth licensing, then you should find the money to get a non-provisional patent application written and filed. I would suggest filing it with a Track One request and the relevant fee (which may be as low as $1000) in order to get a first Office... Read more »

Over 130 thousand. Yes, there are a lot of patents that claim lasers or the use of lasers.

There is not a process for the United States Patent Office to provide compensation to widows of patent inventors.

Patent US5681475 was filed back in 1995 and is listed as expired. So unless there was an agreement with an assignee of the patent to share money with the inventors that has... Read more »

It is very serious to accuse someone of stealing an idea. It does happen but you need to have your facts all lined up.

As your fact pattern did not include that you obtained a patent, you cannot sue for patent infringement. (yet).

You need to take all the relevant documents to... Read more »

PAIR shows this case as alive and the fees were paid at 3.5 years so next fee window opens 8/16/2018.

I hope this helps.

Kevin E Flynn

Here is a helpful resource: https://www.uspto.gov/patents-maintaining-patent/maintain-your-patent

If you are seeking to file a patent application to claim something in a provisional application by some other inventor -- that does not work as you need to be the original inventor. You cannot file a patent application on a good idea that someone else had -- even if they did not seek to claim that... Read more »

It generally takes several days, maybe up to a week (or two, if there is a lot of back and forther between the inventor, attorney, and the drawing person), to put together a patent application. The whole process, from the filing of the application, until you get a patent, will be about 2 to 4... Read more »

You need to get connected with an attorney that has been down this road many times before. You will need a non-disclosure/non-use agreement that is used with folks that are given access to your design.

To the extent that you work with vendors to improve your design, the paperwork needs... Read more »

There are three types of patents in the US:

plant patents,

design patents (on the ornamental appearance of something), and

utility patents.

The latter is the most common so people frequently say patent rather than utility patent. Within utility patents, the... Read more »

You need to have enough detail so that others can make and use your idea. Some patents have no drawings at all. Some have three or less. Some have dozens of drawings -- especially if they are showing many different variations on the idea or if there are many flow charts on processes.

I... Read more »

There is not really an international patent. There is a process to file a patent application which serves as the front end for the patent application systems for 152 countries or regions http://www.wipo.int/pct/en/pct_contracting_states.html. This is a Patent Cooperation Treaty Application (PCT).... Read more »

Great question.

Here are some points to consider.

1) It is extremely rare that someone submits a patent application for the first x (first transistor, first airplane, first telephone). We remember those folks as they are few and far between. Most patent applications are filed on... Read more »