Your question did not include the patent number.

But here are some basic pointers.

1) Make sure that the patent of potential interest is still in force. It may have expired at the end of its full term. It may have lapsed early for failure to pay a maintenance fee.

2) Look... View More

As a person with curiosity, you should develop your skills using the free patent search tools. Some useful tips are in my slide set on patent searching that I provide to entrepreneurs. http://bit.ly/Patent_Searching. I hope this helps.

Kevin E Flynn

Boardgames have traditionally been protected by copyrights and by trademarks.

This is good news for you, because it looks like the protection is going to be relatively cheap.

Good luck in Indianapolis!

You are going to have to hire an attorney to help you with this. Especially if you received a cease and desist letter.

You should also note that there are 4 other patents in this family (specifically, 9,162,127; 9,463,367; 9,480,894; and 9,999,816) that might be relevant to you.... View More

You can ask them to sign agreements. The agreement should be written by a law firm that frequently does this sort of work. A agreement that you write based on something that you found on the internet is not really a good answer.

Depending on the country where they manufacturer is located,... View More

I can't tell you that you can patent your invention. You can patent an invention that is patentable subject matter. It must be new, non-obvious and you must be the first to apply for a patent on the invention. You don't need a prototype so long as the invention is fully developed/designed.

Your question as passed on to lawyers was garbled. So I am guessing at what you asked.

It is hard to believe that there is a non-expired patent that covers using a magnet to close portions of a shirt. The good news is that I am not aware of any synonyms to the word "magnet"... View More

To file a patent in the US will cost you $730, regardless of what the subject matter is.

How much will it cost you to get patent protection for an anti-cancer drug is a totally different question. As you know, cancer is the number 2 killer of people in most of the world, and will be #1... View More

I am sorry, but you are going to have a tough time finding someone good to do pro bono work in patent law. Unless you are a church, a non-profit group, or some charitable organization, pro bono patent work is pretty much non-existent. The reason is that unlike in criminal law, patents are a... View More

Here are some tips on doing your own patent searching. http://bit.ly/Patent_Searching You may want to augment this effort with hiring a patent attorney to do some additional checking.

I hope that this helps.

Kevin E Flynn

I am sorry, your question was sent out to people that seek patents for inventors. You need to submit this question under the category of real property.

I hope this helps.

Kevin E Flynn

This is a common question.

No, you do not have to make sure that every single part of the product is not yet patented. Almost all patented products have parts that are already known. So, in your example, for a water bottle with a temperature sensor, it is OK to take a commercially... View More

Yes, this is done all the time. Your patent would be a formulation patent. The majority of patents that I write are formulation patents.

A couple of notes:

(1) The biggest problem that you need to overcome is the obviousness rejection. You can't just take known ingredients,... View More

Short answer: Maybe.

Long answer: Generally speaking methods of providing a therapy are patentable, but it is hard to get into the any specifics without some factual context for your case (and I recommend against seeking same in a public forum). All patents are subject to the statutory... View More

It is hard to patent a web site under the current case law. You usually need to show that you have invented a way to make web sites work better and that is normally independent of the content of the web site.

Putting that aside for now -- one cannot take something that is already in... View More

The answer is that you need to find a noun or verb in each independent claim of that patent that you do not have. Alternatively, you need to do some searching of prior art and find reasons why that patent should not have been issued as it was too close to the prior art.

This is hard work... View More

If you have come up with a pillow that is different in operation from other pillows (it has a better way to vent so that it stays cool) or you have come up with a way to make pillows that is less expensive, then you can consider a utility patent.

Assuming that you have the first pillow in... View More

It would be a long shot but you may want to consider whether the five previously known items combined together for what you call a "new purpose and function" could be protected with either a method claim or a kit claim.

You may want to look at my slide set on searching and see if... View More

You will need to contact a patent attorney. Patents are not something that most people can do themselves; unless you've worked on a number of patent applications with a patent attorney before and understand the entire process, you really need to have a patent attorney do the work for you.... View More

Yes, you can.

But, it is by no means easy. If you just take a known supplement and use a known method to prepare an oral strip containing the supplement, then you will likely not get a patent on it. The reason for this is because you are just combining prior art elements according to... View More