I'm an aspiring inventor and I'm trying to determine what the America Invents Act does for new patents. Does it remove already existing patents that are bogus like J.M. Smuckers' claim to the peanut butter and jelly sandwich?
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I'm an aspiring inventor and I'm trying to determine what the America Invents Act does for new patents. Does it remove already existing patents that are bogus like J.M. Smuckers' claim to the peanut butter and jelly sandwich?
have you read the act? If so, what do you think and why?
If not, you should start with reading the act.
and, like usual, you are asking questions based on some incorrect statement. Smucker's did not patent a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. In fact, the patent they applied for was rejected. They purchased a patent on a specifically constructed peanut butter and jelly sandwich which was issued in 1999.
No. It simply changes the process form a "first to invent" to a "first inventor to apply" system. This makes it easier to prove who will actually hold the patent and helps cut down lawsuits by people who claim to have physically invented something first.
Which is why you keep things like this close to the vest. The best way to protect what you have is to not let anyone know what you have.
Besides which, the other side of the coin comes into play as well. Many people will try to claim something that isn't theirs, and this act which, I don't think takes effect until March of next year, should help cut down on those phony claims.
that would be great if it wasn't so difficult to actually file a well constructed patent application. Most people must resort to outside assistance to just file for a patent. The other problem arises in when a person is attempting to determining if it is worth patenting. Where Apple and Samsung and all the guys with money file patents on everything they think of just to protect it from anybody else using it, an inventor is hoping to make some money off the item and as such, has to do some market research to determine if there is any value in the product. It becomes difficult to not reveal some aspects of the product, if not actually all of them in that endeavor.Quote:
Browne;644724]Which is why you keep things like this close to the vest. The best way to protect what you have is to not let anyone know what you have.
the problem with patents, in general, is that if you don't have a bunch of disposable money available, the truth is, you cannot get your product patented. I have invented several items that I did not patent. I have seen a few of them, several years down the road, being produced and marketed. It's not that they stole my ideas but simply that we both came up with nearly identical products. When checking their app dates, my invention preceded theirs but alas, I'm just a poor boy but I need no sympathy because I'm easy come, easy go. Sometimes a little high, sometimes a little low. Really, anyway the wind blows doesn't really matter to me.Quote:
Besides which, the other side of the coin comes into play as well. Many people will try to claim something that isn't theirs, and this act which, I don't think takes effect until March of next year, should help cut down on those phony claims.
anyway, if I could have afforded to patent my products, it may have been possible I would have been earning the royalties from those sales. :(
What song was that from? That looks familiar somehow.
Anyway, I see what you're saying; it's a game that mainly only the big boys can play and I agree. If you're really serious though and you have anyone who can help with a little financial backing to help with the process, that's what I would do. Even a small business loan if that's what it takes, even though it would be awhile before you start to see income from the sales of the product.
Patenting things along the lines of what people like Apple do would be very difficult in my opinion because they pretty much have a lock on the market and would probably buy your idea out before you even get a chance to patent it. I would take the road less traveled, not having to buck up against corporations with billions in their coffers, just so I have a chance of patenting something. Like those Snuggle or Snuggie blankets that you see advertised on T.V. Not a lot of competition there I would imagine.
And you never know, sometimes the most absurd inventions end up making the most money. :)
Gotta go, talk to you later.
Given that many inventions are collaborative, that's really difficult to do these days. A lot of inventions require capital and that doesn't come if you work entirely in secret, with the exception of classified government research I suppose.
@jk,
I was thinking that a lot of phony patents have been filed after products had long been in use and I was wondering if the authors of the America Invents Act considered this when they applied the law. I'm glad that Smuckers' claim to the PBJ wasn't recognized. There are other examples as well though. For instance, Dr. Vinod Gupta of NISCAIR has stated that there are 2,493 US patents that were taken directly from Ayurveda and in use for thousands of years for the same purposes and in the same manner as the filed patents' state. Will these plants now be monopolized for medicinal purposes?
patents can be challenged. If nobody disputes their validity, they will remain intact.Quote:
@jk,
I was thinking that a lot of phony patents have been filed after products had long been in use and I was wondering if the authors of the America Invents Act considered this when they applied the law. I'm glad that Smuckers' claim to the PBJ wasn't recognized. There are other examples as well though. For instance, Dr. Vinod Gupta of NISCAIR has stated that there are 2,493 US patents that were taken directly from Ayurveda and in use for thousands of years for the same purposes and in the same manner as the filed patents' state. Will these plants now be monopolized for medicinal purposes?