Services

I provide a variety of patent related services. My services are targeted to the needs of small firms and start-ups that don't want or can't afford an in-house intellectual property group, don't want to hire a patent law firm, but yet understand the need to protect their intellectual property.  I can work on a single patent application or manage a portfolio.  I can analyze what your competitors are trying to patent or have patented.  I maintain all records associated with work I do for you in a cloud based database which allows me (and you) ready access to all pertinent records. This is designed so that I can provide what is in essence an in-house service for your firm, even though your company may not need a full time patent engineer or agent.  If you desire up to the minute information about your patents and applications, I can create web pages, customized reporting, forms and dashboards that can all be linked directly to your companies internal website.  If you want to stay out of it, I can simply inform you when something needs your attention.  Specifics on service I can provide are listed below.

 Patent Drafting

As a licensed US patent agent, I can draft your patent applications and submit them to the US Patent Office as either a provisional application, regular national application or a Patent Cooperation Treaty Application (PCT).  Provisional or PCT applications can later be submitted as a national application in the US other countries.   


Provisional patent applications in essence establish an invention date for which you can then submit a regular application (US national or PCT) within 1 year.  A provisional application can be much less formal that a regular application and also legally entitles you to a patent pending status of your invention. 

  
There is something called a fast track application which can go through the patenting process much faster than normal. Normal can be a long as 7 years for a business method (software) patent.  I can also recommend when you might want to fast track a patent application.


Already have a PCT or national application in a foreign country and need a US equivalent?  I am happy to create and file a US application for you converting your existing claims into a form more palatable to the US patent office.

 Patent Prosecution

Once I have submitted an application for you, the fun just starts.  Next we have to deal with search reports, information disclosure statements, fees, responses to patent examinations, nationalizations, continuations, appeals and all sorts of stuff.  I can perform all of these tasks (with the exception of some foreign nationalizations) as I am a licensed patent agent.  I can do anything a patent attorney can do except litigation (go before a judge in a courtroom).  

  Prior Art Search/ Landscape Studies/ Patentability Analysis

Prior art pertains to patents, applications, publications or disclosures of information related to an invention.

If you are interested in seeing who is working in a particular field or developing products similar to yours, a landscape study can be performed to evaluate art in a broad area of study.


If you want to determine the likelihood of obtaining a patent for an invention or find prior art to invalidate a competitor's patent, a patentability analysis can be performed evaluating art with respect to a specific idea, patent or patent application.  New regulations associated with the America Invents Act make it easier and less expensive to provide the patent office with art that could be used to invalidate a competitors patent.  We can discuss why or why not you may wish to be proactive in invalidation of existing patents or applications.  

 

If you decide to fast track a patent application, I and you need to do the examiners job for them and present relevant art with respect to the invention and tell why it is not valid prior art.

 Patent Engineering

If you are developing or producing or even contemplating new products,  you need to periodically harvest inventions from your staff and this is what a patent engineer does.  One thing to remember is that it is NOT necessary to actually build an invention to patent it.   However, you need to sufficiently disclose how to make your invention so that someone could build it from your description. 

 
I can act as your patent engineer and perform the following services: 
•periodically come to your facility  and lecture on the importance of innovation, describe the patenting process and advise you when you should apply for  patents.
•meet with your engineers and scientist to discuss their ideas
•assist in writing comprehensive invention disclosures that can be turned into patent applications
•sit in on planning and product discussions to identify areas where patent protection could be warranted
•provide an online invention and patent database designed specifically to your companies needs

 Portfolio / White Space Analysis

Already have a portofolio of patents?  I can evaluate where there might be holes (white space) in you armor which makes you vunerable.   I can look into ways you can expand claims for existing patent applications that specifically block you competitors products or patent applications.

 Docketing and Online Storage

There is a lot of paperwork associated with getting a patent and there are also a lot of hard and fast deadlines.  Keeping track of all this is call docketing.  I can either keep you informed via email when something needs your attention or create custom web page access to your all of you patent related records and any analysis I perform.  You can specify permissions so that inventors can only see the progress of their inventions if that is what you desire.  As this entails purchasing cloud space and utilizing software as a service, therefore it is easier if I come to your facility and demonstrate how this can work with the setup I use internally.

 
Invention disclosures, prior art, patent applications, landscape studies are all interrelated and the only way to manage all of this is with a comprehensive database.   If someone already thought of an idea in your company last year, and prior art was discovered that would make it non-patentable, you need to know this and have ready access to this information so you are not constantly re-inventing the wheel (or paying your inventors for the same invention).  

Information is stored in a series of linked tables so that it only has to be entered once!

 

This service is easier to demo at your location than here as it requires a license for the software as a service that is used that is based on either the number of users or storage space utilized in the cloud.