How To Get A Patent

This is a serious article meant for inventors wanting to know How to Get a Patent, and in particular how to get a strong US provisional patent application without spending $thousands on patent attorney fees.

After an introduction, I give a detailed review of an over-the-shoulder, step-by-step How to Get a US Provisional Patent video, but if you just want to go straight to the official site:

Click here to visit David Korpi’s How to Get a Provisional Patent Official Website

How to Get a Patent is probably the most frequently asked question I get when speaking to inventors, and the answer is straight forward … Either:

• 1. Hire a patent attorney to do it for you, OR
• 2. Do it yourself

However, the problem with using a patent attorney is that it costs you anywhere from $3,000 – $15,000, depending on the complexity of your invention. As this is out of the reach of most inventors, the key and more pertinent question is really this: How to Get a Patent – without having to spend thousands of dollars on  attorney fees?

For US inventors, the answer is straight forward: Begin by filing what’s called a Provisional Patent Application. The United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) currently charges just $125 for this … AND they have an online system especially set-up so that inventors can to do it for themselves.  And without having to pay the mega-bucks attorneys require.

So the answer to the question “How to Get a Patent” is:

STEP 1 – file a Provisional Patent Application
STEP 2 – file a full Patent Application within one year of Step 1

The benefits of a Provisional Patent Application
STEP 1, filing a provisional patent application, establishes your all important Patent Filing Date.  It will then mature into a full issued patent if and when you apply for a full patent within a year (STEP 2).

In the meantime, by just filing your provisional patent application (STEP 1), you immediately confer important advantages for your invention, as follows:

COST
As explained above, MUCH lower cost.

PENDING PATENT protection
With your provisional patent application in place, you get the legal right to publicly use the phrase Patent Pending. You can then talk to manufacturers, prototype makers, investors and potential customers or licensees, SAFE in the knowledge that they cannot steal your idea without violating your legal protection.

EXTRA YEAR
Because you don’t have to file your full patent application for up to a year after your provisional patent application date, you can use this year to further research, refine and test your invention and crucially – research and set-up your marketing plans.

And if you decide to go ahead and file your full patent application, it will be backdated to the date of your provisional patent application. This means that YOUR patent will take priority over anyone else’s who files a patent similar to yours at any time after your provisional application date.   Time is of the essence then!

How to get a Provisional Patent – for less
OK, but there is still a problem.  If you use a patent attorney to file a provisional patent application for you – surprise, surprise, they will still charge you thousands of dollars rather than the more affordable $125 that the USPTO charge you!

So what to do?

Actually, the solution is surprisingly straight forward – just do it yourself using the online system that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has ESPECIALLY set up to enable inventors like you to do it for themselves!

How best to learn to file a Provisional Patent Application correctly?
Now, although it is a fairly straightforward process once you know how to do it – you do need some expert guidance and specific knowledge to do it RIGHT.  I would be misleading you if I were to suggest otherwise.

And I make no bones about it – your provisional patent application is an important document. It is the basis upon which the strength of your full patent application will rest, so it is worth spending a bit of time learning about how to do it properly and in such a way that it gives your invention the very best chance of patent success.

So what is the BEST way of learning how to do it?  How can you most simply and efficiently acquire the right guidance and specific knowledge needed to do it right?

In my opinion, BY FAR the best way is to get David Korpi’s How to Get a Provisional Patent Video Course, which takes you STEP-by-STEP through the entire process, using a series of over-the-shoulder videos.

The great thing about this course is that even if you decide not to file your provisional patent application yourself (though you probably will), you will get SO much information from the course, that it will still save you thousands of dollars on attorney fees!

Why?  Because, the more information you can give your patent attorney in a patent-ready format, the less they can charge you.  In other words, the less you know, the more profitable it is for them!  Or put another way – the more you know, the less profitable it is for them!

The rest of this post therefore focuses on my unbiased and honest review of this course, but if you want to skip the review you can click here to go directly to David Korpi’s How to Get a Patent Official Website

Review of How to Get a Provisional Patent Video Course
Ok … let’s get started.

Background of author
David Korpi, the author of this course, is an inventor with 13 issued patents. Over his long inventor career, and he has worked with some of the most talented patent attorneys around. Having learnt the “tricks of the trade” from them, and having seen the enormous sums patent attorneys charge for their services, David decided to create a simple-to-follow video course to help inventors do it themselves.

Here’s a video about the course – presented by course author, David Korpi

Click here to visit David Korpi’s How to Get a Provisional Patent Official Website

Course Content
The course revolves around a series of online videos and each one has some accompanying written text – including patent application samples, advice, tips and tricks, things to do and equally importantly … things to be sure to not do! The course takes inventors STEP-by-STEP through the entire provisional patent application filing process, and includes:

• The list of all the USPTO’s forms for filing a provisional patent, and the sequence they should be completed
• How to access and correctly complete in detail all the required online forms
• How to create and save your patent Drawings and Specifications file in the special way the US Patent Office requires
• How to layout and format your patent application in the exact way the USPTO wants
• How to use special software to make things easier
• Detailed help on creating Patent Drawings and Patent Claims
• The exact special text you MUST include at this point to protect yourself when it comes to filing your full patent later
• Lots of patent SAMPLE examples
• How to do patent searches to help make sure your invention does not infringe an existing patent
• And … a TRULY valuable bonus, as follows:

BONUS
A one-to-one PERSONAL telephone call with the course author, David Korpi himself to clarify any issues. Not a call centre. Not a secretary. But David Korpi, the course author himself.

Click here to visit David Korpi’s How to Get a Provisional Patent Official Website

Summary
Earlier, I promised to give you an honest and unbiased review of this course, and as ‘nothing is perfect’, here goes:

POINTS that maybe could be improved a bit
- The course material could be presented in a way that could be a bit “prettier”, by which I mean that the author appears to not have hired a graphic designer to polish up the material for maximum visual appeal. Frankly this is no big deal, and actually given the tendency these days of creating visually slick presentations that just mask genuine and substantial content, it may even be preferred.

- The video narration tends to be a little bit fast for my liking, but this may be just a personal thing. In any event however, you can simply click on any of the videos to pause whenever you want and/or wind back and replay them as often as you like.

GOOD POINTS
- The course is surprisingly comprehensive – everything I can think of is covered … and more. For example, the course even advises how to talk to patent examiners if they get back to you with questions or objections, and it also explains how to do a free patent search.

- Even if you know nothing about patents, this course will take you through STEP-by-STEP all you need to know to file a provisional patent application. Yes, it does require some focus. Just set aside a weekend, and you’re done!

- The course author offers his personal phone number, so you can call and discuss any issues that arise. Not a call centre. Not a secretary. But David Korpi, the course author himself.

- In addition to the over-the-shoulder videos, I particularly like the sample files, so you can see exactly what your patent application should look like.

- And yes, you really can save thousands of dollars: Firstly, the course enables you to file your provisional patent application yourself for just over $100. But even if you decide to hire a patent attorney to do it for you, as you will be able to provide the attorney the right information in the right patent-ready format, it will save you thousands of dollars!

Click here to visit David Korpi’s How to Get a Provisional Patent Official Website

Ok … so you have a great new invention, either a brand new product or an  improvement to an existing one – but how can you get patent protection in the USA without spending thousands of dollars on patent attorney fees?

The answer is surprisingly straight forward: Rather than using a patent attorney to file an application for a full patent that will cost between $3,000 – $15,000 (yes, really!), you can file an application for a US Provisional Patent YOURSELF which will cost just a little over $100.  And furthermore, there are in fact several advantages to filing a US provisional patent application rather than a full patent application, as follows:

Provisional Patent Application VS Full Patent Application

1. MUCH less cost

A provisional patent application is MUCH less expensive – just over $100 rather than many thousands of dollars.

2. MUCH easier to do it yourself

The application for filing a provisional patent, although a bit tricky is SO much easier to do yourself (rather than having to hire an expensive patent attorney to do it for you).  Because it is much less complex, as long as inventors take the time and trouble to understand how to do it, they should be fine.  And David Korpi’s excellent step-by-step Video Training Guide “How to Get a Provisional Patent “ will handle any problems or issues you may have.  I have purchased this product in order to be able to honestly review it, and I will be presenting my detailed review in my next post here.

3. “PATENT PENDING” status allowed straight away

Unlike with a full patent application, the USPTO (US Patent Office) does not review or approve provisional patent applications.  This means that applicants can use the term “PATENT PENDING” straight away.  This is a big deal, as it can take the USPTO up to several years to adjudicate on a full patent application.

4. TEST PERIOD of 1 year before full patent needs to be applied for

Let’s be clear.  A provisional patent is not a substitute for a full US patent which lasts 20 years, but it does provide the applicant with an extra valuable year to further research, develop, design, and get confidential market feedback for the invention.

The issue is this.  It can be fool-hardy to go straight for a full and very expensive patent application only to find that your invention isn’t such a great idea after all!  The extra year that a provisional patent application gives you creates the opportunity to SAFELY test out prototypes, talk to manufacturers, hunt out possible investors, and show it around to get real-world market feedback before committing to the expense of  a full patent application.

5. Establishes PRIORITY DATE

Once your application has been received by the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office), you will have established what is called your Priority Date.  This means for example that if someone else files a very similar patent to yours say just one day after you did, their patent will not be allowed – as you have priority.

Go to How to Get a Provisional Patent – Video Course review

Go to How to Get a Patent – Video Course review