What is the processing time to patent a new product?
407469
You really need to consult a patent lawyer about this. The amount of time is dependent on a number of factors. For example, is this product a spin-off of something already patented? If, so the patent office will have to determine if there is any infringement involved. Are all your drawings and technical papers complete and in order? If not, there could be a delay here.
102150
The other poster was right about some things but misspoke about others. This is best answered by the USPTO themselves:\n\nWhat Is a Patent?\n\nA patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the Patent and Trademark Office. The term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States or, in special cases, from the date an earlier related application was filed, subject to the payment of maintenance fees. US patent grants are effective only within the US, US territories, and US possessions.\n\nThe right conferred by the patent grant is, in the language of the statute and of the grant itself, “the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling” the invention in the United States or “importing” the invention into the United States. What is granted is not the right to make, use, offer for sale, sell or import, but the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the invention.\n\nWhat Is a Trademark or Servicemark?\n\nA trademark is a word, name, symbol or device which is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others. A servicemark is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. The terms "trademark" and "mark" are commonly used to refer to both trademarks and servicemarks.\n\nTrademark rights may be used to prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark, but not to prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark. Trademarks which are used in interstate or foreign commerce may be registered with the Patent and Trademark Office. The registration procedure for trademarks and general information concerning trademarks is described in a separate pamphlet entitled "Basic Facts about Trademarks".\n\nWhat Is a Copyright?\n\nCopyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of “original works of authorship” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, both published and unpublished. The 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to reproduce the copyrighted work, to prepare derivative works, to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work, to perform the copyrighted work publicly, or to display the copyrighted work publicly.\n\nThe copyright protects the form of expression rather than the subject matter of the writing. For example, a description of a machine could be copyrighted, but this would only prevent others from copying the description; it would not prevent others from writing a description of their own or from making and using the machine. Copyrights are registered by the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress.\n*********************************************************\nRE: Trademarks -- Their use is not indefinite as long as you continue to use the mark. There are deadlines to pay attention to -- between the 5th & 6th year of registration as well as at the 10 yr, 20 yr, 30 yr etc \n\nRE: Copyrights -- Yes, a copyright comes into existence once something is in a "fixed, tangible form," however, registering your copyright provides you with many rights that should be considered.\n\nHope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!
72660
Start by finding a patent attorney. \n\nTo prove you are the original inventor, you want a patent. Whoever files in the patent office first wins (providing that the patent is ultimately issued).  File a provisional patent.  This will give you a "placeholder" and protect your invention for one year during which you need to prepare a full patent application. No other documentation will stand up to a patent. You can do the provisional patent yourself.  Look at this website:
920157
Probably just a few years before the reissue date, but there is no way to tell from your question.  You may be able to tell from the front of the reissue patent.  If you tell us the patent number, title, and applicant (inventor) I can look it up and give you further information.  And what do you mean by "the original date"?  Do you mean the date the patent was originally issued?\n\nThe previous two answerers are apparently under the mistaken impression that a reissue patent extends a patent term after the first patent term is ended.  This does not happen; when the patent term expires the invention passes into the public domain.  A reissue patent is generally an amended patent that a patent holder applies for when he realizes that he made a mistake writing the first version, usually because he claimed too much or not enough.  It doesn't change the patent expiration date.  Reissue patents are usually applied for within the first two years after the original patent issues.  I'm a patent attorney, by the way.
1017074
You want to go here:\n\nhttp://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/howtopat.htm
1110681
I'd check to see if you're infringing someone else's patent first. If you're not, and you don't want to see an attorney, I'd find a patent agent. Agents can prosecute patents before the USPTO and are usually cheaper than attorneys. Agents and attorneys are similar, but attorneys can litigate. Anyway, you have a year from the time you first published your idea to file a patent. From the initial patent you can get other patents on different aspects of your invention and file foreign patents. But you should really check to see if you're infringing first.
427316
No, there are patent filing fees so that they don't get 10000000 applications for the Master Theory of Slacking Off every other day.\n\nYou might get someone to pay for your patent fees, I suppose. Also, it's pretty standard to hire a patent lawyer to take care of the wording because if you do it yourself, you're likely to not get it correct.  Then, competition will find a hole in the patent and the patent will be worthless.
404612
Not certain about the question, but the United States Patent Office is the best place to get clear and correct information about patents.  Go to uspto.com
8951
You can protect your idea by filing a provisional claim with the USPTO. This is kind of like a "patent lite" and allows you to protect the product for up to a year.  The cost is US$200 and should be done straight away. Visit the PTO website for information on filing applications electronically. \n\nAfter that, prepare yourself for a tremendous uphill battle. If this is a design patent (i.e. a new form of an existing product), you will find it difficult to locate interested buyers. If this is a utility patent (a new product or process), you will need to find companies within the industry and see if they are interested. \n\nYou will want to get a hold of a standard NDA/NC (Non-Disclosure Agreement / Non-Compete). These are fairly boilerplate and should be easy to locate on the 'net. Requiring NDA's is STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE when shopping around an idea and manufacturers are generally comfortable signing them. If a manufacturer refuses to sign, WALK AWAY. There is something wrong. An NDA is no guarantee that a company won't steal your idea, but at least it provides evidence of due dilligence during any potential infringement lawsuit.\n\nSearch the various government department websites for grant applications. The government is always looking to foster the development of new ideas that can potentially benefit the nation. There are grants for both non-profit and for-profit company's available and some even include grants for "concept development and R&D". \n\nBarring that, you may want to consider some form of rapid prototyping. Depending on the invention idea, this could be a short production run of the product, some kind of stereo lithography or other RP, or a "proof of concept" 3-D model, engineering analysis, etc. Having a physical, working prototype that a potential buyer can see, touch and interact with is FAR more impressive than a napkin sketch. Be prepared to spend $1-10K on a prototype. Well worth the investment, because if a picture is worth 1,000 words, a prototype is worth 1,000,000.\n\nGood Luck!
131623
Your first step is to protect your rights to the patent and establish priority (first inventor) as of a provable date.  If you publicly disclose your invention you may have only one year to submit a patent application.  For practical purposes it takes a patent attorney to file a valid patent and the attorney can advise you how to proceed and market the invention too.  Good luck.
393916
Check the US Patent and Trademark Office. They have a search function.
978342
If its a new item, i would be trying to Patent it first.
1018226
Try the US Patent Office.  Perhaps the FAQ's can help a little.
530539
first, you need to do a search in case your technology is already patented by someone else, note that the fact that there is no similar product in the market doesn't prove it has not been patented yet.\ngo to www.uspto.gov (us patent and trademark office). click on patents, and then click on search patents and publications, there you can search for your key word, artifitial kidney or whatever it is and compare the results to make sure there is no match. after that you can go to a patent attorney and apply for a patent.\nyou can read the patent section of the uspto.gov, it has a lot of good information about patents.
588132
A patent is a federal office thing. You may want to look for a local patent repository to learn about other inventions and search the records. (a repository is a duplicate of the records in the patent office in Washington).\nOtherwise, go to http://www.uspto.gov\nor look in the yellow pages under "Attorneys" and look for one that knows patenting law.
479389
Tell me what the product is. No I am just kidding. First write down the complete details of your idea, seal it in an envelope, go to your local post office and send the package back to yourself as a certified letter, and most importantly don't open this envelope ever. store it someplace safe. This establishes a timeline for your idea. Then begin your search at www.uspto.gov. there are a lot of website that offer complete patent search capabilities but you want to go directly to the source. Further this site will direct you to other resources that will help you secure your patent quickly and easily.
26867
After the processing time (2-4 weeks) based on when the forms are submitted.