If you have a good idea for an invention, a patent is still a very
good and effective way to safeguard against intellectual property squatters, copy-caters and imitators. If you are planning on applying for a patent on
your invention, you need to be aware of three essential phase in the process of
converting an invention into a patent. Those phases are searching, drafting and
filing. This article is a brief overview of the filing phase, and in
particular, the several choices afforded to an inventor in filing a utility
application for a patent. This article covers US national filing and not
choices and procedure for an international application for a patent or a PCT
application. Filing can get tricky and retaining a competent patent attorney in
your area is highly recommended. Furthermore, if you are a “serial” inventor,
you may be precluded from claiming access to discounted filing fees
When filing for a patent you have four basic choices:
Regular
Filing:
Regular filing of a non-provisional application for a patent
entails the lowest filing fee and the simplest filing procedure. The
application joins the queue of filed patent applications and waits its turn to
be examined by a Patent Office examiner. That turn may not arrive until a year
and a half to two years after the initial filing. Disposition of applications
under this form of filing is between three and five years. However, unlike
other choices listed below, this is the most flexible form of filing for a
patent available.
Petition
to Make Special:
The inventor may be able to speed up examination without paying
significantly more. A petition to examine applications out of order may be
available in some cases of health, age or particular subject matter. Check with
your patent attorney whether you can benefit from such a petition a petition of
this sort does not carry a charge. In fact, there are no additional charges or
limitations, provided that health, age, or subject matter (either of the three)
comply with the requirements. Disposition of applications under this form of
filing is approximately twelve months, but can sometimes take longer.
Prioritized
Examination or Track One
If time is of the essence and the application does not qualify for
special considerations, and accelerated examination seems like too much work,
you may apply for the Prioritized Examination aka Track One Examination.
Prioritized examination requires ability to file applications electronically.
This is essentially a standard non-provisional utility patent application,
except that most fees are paid up front. There are conditions that must be met
in order to qualify for this filing, and these are strictly enforced. There is substantial
prioritized examination fee. Only a finite number of such applications are
granted each year on a first come first serve basis. This type of patent
application has zero room for filing error. Fees paid for an application that was
deemed incomplete are not refundable. So having a capable Patent attorney NYC to file
this patent application on your behalf is essential. The disposition from
filing to issuance of a patent is set to approximately twelve months.
Accelerated
Examination
This is probably the most difficult filing patent processes. The
main source of difficulty is that the inventor must actually perform a large
portion of prior art search and analysis and supply the patent office with a
detailed report regarding prior art (inventions that already exist in the
public space) and how the invention overcomes it. There are other filing
prerequisites, including a petition to allow for acceleration and prepayment of
all filing fees. However, the accelerated examination
process is more tolerant of filing mistakes and is only subject to the
additional fee to cover the cost of the petition. If the inventor and/or his
attorney had already done the prior art search analysis during the patent
search or feasibility search phases, filing for an accelerated examination
should entail minimum amount of additional work.
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