This is a summary of my previous posts and a brief warning about when your patent protection starts.
As disclosed in my previous posts, the earliest you can file a patent application eligible for allowance is when you can describe how to make and use your invention.
That’s it. You do not need to make your invention. You do not need to have working examples. You do not need to optimize your invention. However, it is often a great idea to prepare enough working examples to prove that your idea works and would be profitable to yourself and a patent examiner in foreign countries.
The latest you can file a patent application that is eligible for allowance in every country is before you plan to sell your invention or tell anyone about it without an NDA.
Which brings me to my final point: your patent protection starts when you file a patent application, not when you disclose your invention to your patent attorney.
If you disclose your invention to your patent attorney, and they take forever to get back to you with a draft, then you still have no protection. Tell your patent attorney exactly when you plan to start selling or when you plan to publish your paper and then ask them if they can have it filed before that date.
It shouldn’t take your patent attorney more than 3-4 weeks to get your patent application filed. If it does, then you may want to consider finding a new patent attorney.
Conversely, don’t disclose your invention to your patent attorney then ghost on them because you get busy doing other things.
As I always tell my clients: There is no patent protection on my laptop.
Bottom line: if you want to win the race to the patent office, the finish line is not disclosing your invention to your patent attorney; it is filing your patent application.
Are you looking for the right patent attorney to help you win the race?
Call us at 832-621-0353 and let’s talk about what you need to do to win.