How to Invent and Protect Your Invention: A Guide to Patents for Scientists and Engineers

CHAPTER 6

HOW DOES THE PATENT PROCESS WORK?

Suppose you conceived a great idea for a product, tested it experimentally, and reduced it to practice, and now you are ready to protect (i.e., patent) it. What must you do to patent your invention? The purpose of this chapter is to help you along the road to a patent. Just as you became aware of how simple it is to invent, provided that you know a few basics (see Chapter 6), now we want to teach you how simple it can be to obtain a patent (provided you really have made an invention).

A major practical difference between the acts of inventing and protecting an invention is that inventing can be done alone by you, the technical professional, whereas patenting generally requires the help of a patent professional (i.e., a patent attorney or patent agent). Patent law and PTO rules may seem byzantine in that they are complex, intricate, and procedurally dependent. You should have someone to hold your hand while you navigate toward a patent. Your job is to provide the ammunition (i.e., a written record of your invention) and to educate your patent attorney (or agent) as to the technical minutiae needed for a patent application. Subsequently, with the attorney's or agent's help, your goal is to convince the examiner that you have indeed fulfilled the requirements for a valid patent.