Recommendation for first-time inventors from a patent engineer

Lesley-Ann Knee credit her father for introducing her to the world of patents. He’s an engineer who makes a speciality of application-specific built-in circuits (ASICs) and holds a number of patents on applied sciences he developed whereas working for Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft.

“I’d hear tales of his experiences via the patent prosecution processes,” Knee says, which taught her about completely different sorts of patents, the significance of documentation, and utilizing detailed language. She remembers one litigation battle over a patent that went on for years, which her father’s firm misplaced as a result of somebody forgot to delete data in a patent declare.

Knee, {an electrical} engineer, now works as a patent engineer within the patent prosecution division on the regulation workplace of
Husch Blackwell, headquartered in Chicago. Beneath the supervision of patent attorneys, Knee helps with writing, submitting, and managing patent functions with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Workplace (USPTO).

She is at present finding out for the patent bar examination, which might qualify her to be a licensed patent agent, registered with the USPTO to assist put together and prosecute patent functions. Assuming she passes, she then intends to go to regulation faculty to change into a patent lawyer.

Find out how to Turn out to be a Patent Engineer

Knee initially didn’t know what she needed to check in school. Ultimately she determined that an engineering diploma provided various profession alternatives, so she enrolled at
Colorado State College, in her hometown of Fort Collins. She adopted in her father’s footsteps, specializing in ASIC design, but in addition studied energy programs and semiconductor physics and minored in arithmetic. In 2022 she labored as an intern within the engine analysis division of Honda Analysis and Growth, in Raymond, Ohio, the place she developed a knowledge evaluation software to assist with testing warmth distribution in automobiles.

After graduating from Colorado State in 2022, she determined to get a job associated to patents. From January to Might, she labored part-time as a patent technical intern on the regulation agency of
Dorsey & Whitney, in Denver. “After studying about patents from the opposite facet, I fell in love with the trade,” she says. Knee joined Husch Blackwell in June 2023.

She discovered that patent regulation has its quirky sides. At some point her supervisor walked into one of many accomplice’s workplaces and noticed the lawyer “ripping aside a stuffed animal, guts in all places,” she says. “[My] boss requested if the accomplice was okay. She defined that she had been pulled right into a litigation case that depended fully on the kind of stitching used
inside the stuffed animals.”

What Can Be Patented?

Right here is Knee’s primer on U.S. patents and her recommendation for first-time inventors submitting patents with the USPTO. This data isn’t meant to supply authorized recommendation, she notes, and each nation has its personal patent system, with completely different guidelines and rules. For specifics or steering about authorized issues, she recommends contacting a patent practitioner.

Knee’s first piece of recommendation? Don’t be afraid of submitting a patent utility. Two out of three patents get authorized by the USPTO, she says.

“Should you disclose your invention publicly and don’t file an utility inside one 12 months, you can be barred from receiving a patent on that precise invention.”

To obtain a patent, an invention should have utility—that’s, it needs to be helpful for some objective—and novelty, that means that it’s not an apparent variation of what already exists, she says. It could possibly be a machine, a producing course of, or a composition of matter (that’s, a novel mixture of pure components which might be combined mechanically or chemically).

Some issues that may’t be patented, she says, are atomic weapons, gadgets for unlawful pursuits, strategies of administering enterprise, mathematical discoveries, and scientific ideas—aside from gadgets and strategies that make use of these ideas.

The USPTO has acknowledged a rising curiosity in synthetic intelligence over the previous few years, and in 2024 it launched
examples of AI patentability to offer inventors steering on the patentability of AI.“From my understanding, AI itself isn’t patentable,” Knee says. However utilizing AI to invent one thing doesn’t essentially make the invention unpatentable, she says.

An Overview of the Patent Course of

The USPTO makes use of the “first to file” system for patent functions. “Whoever information an utility first can have one of the best likelihood to patent an invention. In any other case, you’re out of luck,” she says.

The patent submitting course of can range extensively by way of value and complexity, she says. Prices embody submitting charges and lawyer charges. Smaller firms and particular person inventors could qualify for reductions on USPTO charges. Prices could also be increased for patent filings that require intensive modifications and prolonged communication with the patent workplace. Complexity is determined by how a lot analysis USPTO examiners should do to find out the distinction between present innovations and the one within the submitting.

For inventors occupied with pursuing a patent for the primary time, “I’d extremely suggest searching for out a patent practitioner—a patent lawyer or patent agent—who presents free consultations to find out patentability, a attainable motion plan, value, and a timeline for submitting,” Knee says. Additionally, some universities have mental property authorized workplaces that may advise professors and college students on the patent course of.

For somebody who needs to file a patent themselves, listed here are some normal steps:

1. File a provisional utility when you’ve a proof of idea or prototype. This kind of utility doesn’t undergo the USPTO however as an alternative holds a spot in line to your patent. Provisional functions expire after one 12 months.
2. To observe up, file a nonprovisional utility inside one 12 months of the primary submitting. This utility is examined by the patent workplace and receives the submitting date of the provisional utility.
3. Promptly reply and reply to any USPTO rejections (referred to as workplace actions), which clarify the explanations your invention can’t be patented. Knee says it’s fairly widespread to get a rejection. You’ll be able to sometimes reply inside three months for free of charge or pay a payment for an extension of as much as six months. Should you don’t reply, the appliance shall be thought of deserted.
4. Should you obtain a discover of allowance (NOA), have a good time! Your utility is eligible to change into a patent. Upon cost of some charges, you’ll obtain a difficulty notification doc displaying the date when the patent shall be formally granted, supplying you with the proper to exclude others from utilizing or promoting your invention in the US.
5. Should you obtain a discover referred to as a closing workplace motion, you’ve two choices. You’ll be able to abandon the appliance, or you’ll be able to file a request for continued examination, which requires you to pay for one more spherical of prosecution and clarify additional why your invention deserves a patent.

The Worth of Mental Property

Watch out disclosing details about your invention or promoting it earlier than submitting a patent utility, Knee says.“Should you disclose your invention publicly and don’t file an utility inside one 12 months, you can be barred from receiving a patent on that precise invention,” she says. “Due to the ‘first to file’ system, if somebody steals your concept by submitting first, this may be exhausting and really costly to reverse.” She additionally advises individuals to watch out about disclosing their innovations via social-media platforms or different communication strategies.

In immediately’s mental property market, patents are forex. Knee has seen firms use patents as collateral for a mortgage, even when the patent utility hasn’t been authorized but.

And different inventors use patents to launch their dream startup. “I’ve seen individuals use patents for assist securing buyers,” Knee says. However it’s not a one-and-done state of affairs, she says. “The hot button is having one patent and submitting further functions that piggyback off of it. This course of could be expensive however has a big impact on stopping opponents from manufacturing comparable merchandise in a brand new area and defending inventors in litigation battles.”