Patents | Defensive Patents | Patent Requirements | Patent Strategies

1. Be aware of the "statutory bars" that can prevent you from ever getting a patent on your invention.  You must file a patent application within one year of selling, offering to sell, publicly using, or publishing your invention.  The one-year "grace period" for these events starts whether you or somebody else discloses the invention.
2. Be aware of your competition.  Are they working on the same technology, and are they likely to file for a patent on it?
3. Keep good records of inventions.  Unlike most of the rest of the world, the United States uses the "first to invent" system.  Filing is important in the United States as well, but if a dispute arises, invention notebooks and the like will be used to determine which inventor invented first.
4. File at the right time. You obviously don't want to file too late, but you also don't want to file too early.  One common mistake that inventors make is to file a Provisional Patent Application (PPA) to get "patent pending" status for one year.  But if you are unable to turn your idea into money in the "patent pending" year and can't continue with the patent process, then you will have lost the benefit of the earlier filing date.
5. Quit your day job. Success is 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration.