There are a lot of good reasons why my firearms industry clients and other clients want to do a patent search. Sometimes, they’ll hire me to the do the job, but I’d like to offer a reliable resource for doing it yourself. Some patent searches are too formal for do-it-yourself internet work, even by me. In extreme cases, finding the “smoking gun” patent that wins a [...]
TWO FAMILIAR WAYS TO PROTECT PRODUCT DESIGNS, PLUS A THIRD WAY YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF AND CAN UNDOUBTEDLY AFFORD. Everyone wants a patent. It’s perfectly logical to want to protect a new product. Technical innovations help set you apart in a crowded marketplace and a patent prevents anyone else from offering your innovation for 20 years. But let’s be honest, [...]
Will Artificial Intelligence Replace Me? You Decide… This month, I’m inviting a guest writer to try to do my job. I know lots of law firms have newsletters they outsource to writers who generate the gibberish no one reads. As you can probably tell, I personally write every word of this. Until now. I decided to ask ChatGPT a few questions, and let it do the writing. [...]
How a patent shut down a competitor in only 24 hours. Nothing more forcefully drives home a lesson you’ve been teaching for years than when what you’ve been telling others for years happens to you. I’ve been reminding everyone for years that having a patent can provide real competitive benefits, even if you never have to spend a fortune litigating it. I liken it to [...]
It's been 10 years since I wrote this. Back then, the biggest change in patent law in my lifetime took effect. And it changed everything. The big change was that patent rights for an invention go to the first to file a patent application, not the first to invent (who has documents showing he invented it first). This means that if you show a new product at SHOT, anyone [...]
...saving money until you are ready. Sometimes a topic is important enough to revisit after a few years. This one reexamines the frequent question of how to “extend” a provisional patent application beyond its natural 12-month life. My readers all know that the smart start for a small inventor or a new company with an invention to protect is a Provisional patent [...]
