Stephen Thomas Scherrer's Answers

How do you most easily obtain a patent from the U.S. government?

If you are still looking for an answer, the best course of action, as noted above, is to hire an experienced patent attorney. You can obtain a patent on a new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof. If your juicer is new and useful, then the next step is to have a patent application written (I would not recommend trying to write a patent application yourself - I have seen too many examples of people trying to do this and...

Does a different design that serves the same function as a patented item infringe the patent?

True - if the product is for home personal use, then it may or may not infringe but there is very little risk a patent owner will come after you, as Mr. Ballard has stated above. However, let's take this a step further - what if your pinsetter does such an amazing job, that you think to yourself - "I should approach a pinsetting company and see if they will license/buy this product" - then two issues arise: first, you should not approach a company without having patent protection; but you...

1 person marked this answer as helpful

Is there a public database to look up patents on different products?

You can also go to www.freepatentsonline.com for some good searching capabilities. Of course, you can do your own search, but I would recommend using a patent searcher who knows how to do robust searching. Keyword searching through the US PTO database, or the database I highlighted above may not get you the information you are looking for, considering that inventors may use different terms to describe the same thing. We routinely provide patent searches and patentability analysis to our...

1 person marked this answer as helpful

What can I do legally to protect myself, if I want to contact a business regarding an invention to improve their product(s)?

Another important way to protect your ideas/inventions is to file patent applications for them. A patent application will give you a priority date in the US patent office. Therefore, you can rest easy that a company or individual you discuss your ideas with will not turn around and try to patent the idea themselves - you have priority based on your filing date. In addition, should they not try to patent the idea, but simply steal it from you, you can have recourse if/when your patent issues...

1 person marked this answer as helpful

About Priority patent filing - can subsequent filings be different?

I agree that there are many excellent patent attorney and small patent boutique firms that can help you prepare and file a patent application that are not expensive (although "expensive" is in the eye of the beholder, of course. As noted above, be careful with respect to changing the invention as you may not be entitled to a priority date of your previous application if the claimed subject matter is not described in the parent application. However, sometimes this happens and is unavoidable -...

1 person marked this answer as helpful

I want to use two images in magazines to discuss the symbolism of their content. How can I do that legally?

Generally, you should always try to obtain permission from the author of a work before using in any format. However, this is sometimes impractical or very difficult. There is a concept in copyright law called "Fair use" that has developed over time to give a bit of a safe harbor to certain uses of copyright material. Generally, use of copyright materials is allowed in criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research, for example. Based on what little information you...

1 person marked this answer as helpful

I would like to patent an "Idea" before I pitch it to any major manufacturing co.

I agree with Mr. Richards above. To expand - "patent pending" status does give you an assurance that your invention has a priority date as of the date you filed the application. Therefore, should you disclose your invention to a company, they cannot try to trump your rights by moving forward and filing their own patent application. However, what they CAN do, is improve upon your idea and file an application based on that improvement, so it is still a good idea to have a non-disclosure...

1 person marked this answer as helpful

Can a new business process being patented for an existing service that is already patented?

Without knowing what the particular business process is, it is difficult to make any judgments whether your business process is patentable over the prior patent. What strikes me from your description - is your statement that the patent in 2007 patented the "same idea . . . down to every last detail." To me, this indicates that you will have a very difficult time convincing the patent office that your invention is not "novel" or "non-obvious" in view of what is described in this prior patent....

Can a apron be patented?

Generally, sure - aprons can be patented. A patent can be granted on any new or useful article (among other things), and an apron certainly qualifies as an article. But the requirements of patentability come into play, and, generally, there are three of them: utility, novelty, and non-obviousness. So as long as your apron satisfies these three requirements, then you can get a patent. (The following is a lay-man's explanation of the requirements for patentability): Utility - whether your...

Utility patents before June 8th 1995

As a follow up to the excellent advice given above, if you are worried about infringing the patent in question, then "similar" is not enough. You have to compare the claims at the end of the patent to your invention. If your invention avoids a single limitation of every claim in the patent (literall or under the doctrine of equivalents), then you don't infringe the patent, and you don't have to worry about when it expires.