"Poor man's patent" lesson:

Ok, you have an invention.   Here's how the mythical PMP can go down:

A.  Sit right down and write yourself a letter, describe in complete detail your invention.  Write a declaration stating the date you came up with this idea.

B.  Have the  declaration, with your signature, notarized.

C.  Fill out a copyright form (you'll need $30.  to go with it.  Can you scrape that up?) and send it in with your "Poor Mans Patent Application" to the Copyright office at the Library of Congress.  Lawyers typically charge $300. for this.   These fiends are shameless!  Obtaining a drivers license is more complicated)

D.  Keep thinking about your invention (you can't abandon it, or you're in trouble) and start looking for a deal.  Don't sell one of your devices, that'll screw things up.

E.  Every Thursday check out the the newly published applications.  You'll need to know the class and subclass of your invention otherwise it'll take all day to do this.

F.  If someone's application describes your invention to a "T", here's what you do:

    a.  Print out their patent or application.

    b.  Retype it, replacing the inventor(s) name with yours.  Get rid of the patent or application number and corresponding dates.

            1.  If there is a lawyer listed, get rid of it.

            2.  If there is an assignee listed, get rid of that also.

            3.  Pull out any prior art reference list with which to make an IDS.

            4.  Put together "your" patent application with the above harvested materials.

    c.  Fill out the forms and mail in your application with the $370.00 filing fee (sorry).

    d.  Start raising hell about these other folks stealing your idea.

And if things go OK you'll be involved in a patent interference proceeding at the PTO and hopefully you'll win and become the rightful owner of the patent.  Yeahhh.

But,,,,,winning this one might be tough.  The patent process is considered a ex parte party.  Ex parte means roughly a one sided legal matter.  You get only partial opposition from the agency know as the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  Sort of like taking a written test for a driver's license.  The PTO is the "devil's advocate" in the patent process.  They examine your patent to determine it's worthiness for a patent, much like the driver's license test.  They're looking out for the public domain, because, on one hand they are "promoting progress" by the issuing of patents they are, on the other hand, possibly hindering it.  And so, while the patent office acts as  the "devil's advocate" during the examination of a patent application, in an infringement proceeding you'll be locking horns with Satin himself, plus all his henchmen and their clever underlings.

    Having said all this we should tell you that our lessons are cheaper to take than becoming involved in an interference proceeding at the PTO so forget about the PMP.

© Devinet Inc.   The pro se posse   Baton Rouge, La