Patents?

[Electroenthusiast]

What is the Procedure to get Patents(/How people get Patents?)? How to know whether that particular idea was patented earlier by someone else before? How much does it Cost? Is there any Website For it?

 

[blueroomelectronics]

For an individual it's probably not worth it.

 

[Brevor]

Patents

A lot depends upon where you live, You should fill in your location with something meaningful.

 

[picbits]

Unless you have a lot of money then its not worth getting a patent.

Contesting a patent will bankrupt the average person - if you're a big company and can afford to contest every breach then yes its worth it.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

The Indian patent office has documents on applying for a patent there.
**broken link removed**

 

[Bob Scott]

Pakistan?

**broken link removed**

 

[blueroomelectronics]

The OP mentioned he was in India in a previous post.
Here's some good reading on when to patent.
https://www.electro-tech-online.com/custompdfs/2009/09/when2pat.pdf

 

[Electroenthusiast]

The Indian patent office has documents on applying for a patent there.
**broken link removed**

Thanks...bit useful!

and is patenting a design costly? TRUE/FALSE
Then how did many scientists like Edison, Darlington,etc., did it?

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Yes patents are very costly, you need a patent lawyer only a fool trys to write their own patent.
The real cost is enforcement.

Edison and the like filed thousands of patents, Edison was great at busting other folks patents and filing them as his own. These were almost a century ago, things are very different now.

Thomas Edison was known by those who worked for him more as a thief of ideas than as an inventor of anything that was in any way useful. The most unfortunate decision of Nikola Tesla's life was to go to work for Thomas Edison.
Edison was notoriously disdainful of those whose brilliance outshone his, and the Tesla alliance did not last long.
Later Tesla worked on furthering X-ray technology, as well as inventing the Tesla coil, a device still used in many wireless products today. There is no denying that Nikola Tesla was a genius when it came to invention, but he definitely lacked something Edison actually did possess: the ability to manipulate public opinion and intimidate others.

What most people do not know is that Edison ran a sweat shop think-tank and brought out all the fruits of his hired labor under his brand name and patent. In 1890 an English inventor named William Friese-Greene, hoping to join this invertor`s club and wrongly thinking his moving picture process was protected by patent, set copies of his research to Edison.
Edison did not give Friese-Greene a job but he did give Friese-Greene`s research to W. K. L. Dickson. Dickson was the Edison wage slave that had the movie bug. He was the driving force behind film. Edison was against projecting images in a theater setting. Edison was looking for a better nickelodeon device.
Edison then protected his stolen idea with a hired band of club welding thugs who would bust up the equipment and the operators of movie cameras not paying him for use of his patent. One of the reasons that the film capital of the world is in Hollywood is because filmmakers were trying to get away from edison`s club welding thugs who chased them across the country.
Even on the other side of the country filmmakers had to fear Edison`s thugs. Samuel Goldfish, later Goldwyn, use to sleep with all his exposed film under his bed and a shot gun propt agaist the night table for fear of the look arm of this beloved inventor.

 

[Electroenthusiast]

Yes patents are very costly, you need a patent lawyer only a fool trys to write their own patent.
The real cost is enforcement.

Edison and the like filed thousands of patents, Edison was great at busting other folks patents and filing them as his own. These were almost a century ago, things are very different now.

really? i owed lot on Edison...i treated him as my Role Model, but after reading this...feels like it would be a wrong decision!

 

[RadioRon]

Patents are very useful if you are a young entreprenuer aiming to start or grow a business. Investors will look for certain key ingredients in a young business in order to invest their money, and one of these is ownership of patents.

In North America, the typical cost to get a Utility Patent (a patent of an invention of some sort) is about $10,000 in legal fees but can certainly have a large range around that figure. I know of one friend who got his own patent by writing his own application and doing all the work himself. His cost was only the patent office fees and he was not only successful in getting his patent, but actually received a compliment from the patent examiner for doing such good job on it.

It is also possible in North America to patent a "design" in the sense of the appearance or styling of an object. This is called a Design Patent, and the typical fees for getting this type of patent are considerably less than with a utility patent. On the order of one or two thousand dollars even if done through a patent attorney.

Large companies collect patents because they use them as currency when dealing with other companies. When you have a large number of patents and then someone comes along and claims that you are using one of their patented inventions, you can threaten them back the same way using your large collection of patents and in the end you may agree to trade some patent rights, or cross-license or some other compromise. So patents can be very useful when defending yourself.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Oh Edison was a brilliant inventor and businessman, perhaps not the most ethical.

 

[Papabravo]

In any thread on the subject of patents it is always worthwhile to recall Don Lancaster's "The case against patents". This is a well written piece of critical analysis.

https://www.electro-tech-online.com/custompdfs/2009/09/casagpat-1.pdf

 

[HarveyH42]

I was always confused when reading about Edison. Everything developed in the Edison Labs, was patented under the company name. I could never figure out what the man invented, and what was invented in his labs by other people. Pretty sure that he was all business man, and did very little of his own work. Definitely not worthy of all the history books, which seldom mention the works of Nikola Tesla.

 

[EN0]

really? i owed lot on Edison...i treated him as my Role Model, but after reading this...feels like it would be a wrong decision!

Yeah, he wasn't very nice to Nikola Tesla either. Edison promised Tesla he would pay him a large sum of money if he constructed this certain thing for him. When Tesla completed it and asked him for the money, Edison said "Don't you know an American joke?"

Why not have Tesla as a role model?

 

[Mr RB]

Oh Edison was a brilliant inventor and businessman, perhaps not the most ethical.

PERHAPS he was not ethical??

Edison has his own little private corner of Hell... Where he's forced to listen to Stan Meyers!

 

[Mikebits]

Patents are very useful if you are a young entreprenuer aiming to start or grow a business. Investors will look for certain key ingredients in a young business in order to invest their money, and one of these is ownership of patents.

In North America, the typical cost to get a Utility Patent (a patent of an invention of some sort) is about $10,000 in legal fees but can certainly have a large range around that figure. I know of one friend who got his own patent by writing his own application and doing all the work himself. His cost was only the patent office fees and he was not only successful in getting his patent, but actually received a compliment from the patent examiner for doing such good job on it.

It is also possible in North America to patent a "design" in the sense of the appearance or styling of an object. This is called a Design Patent, and the typical fees for getting this type of patent are considerably less than with a utility patent. On the order of one or two thousand dollars even if done through a patent attorney.

Large companies collect patents because they use them as currency when dealing with other companies. When you have a large number of patents and then someone comes along and claims that you are using one of their patented inventions, you can threaten them back the same way using your large collection of patents and in the end you may agree to trade some patent rights, or cross-license or some other compromise. So patents can be very useful when defending yourself.

I can see that working if the person that obtains the patent then seeks out outside investors that have the affluence to back the patent in court. Of course one would expect that since outside investors are involved that the patent holder would waive much of the would be financial gain. Be that as it may, this may be a better alternative to just not following through. The dreamer who takes the risk, usually gets a good piece of the pie.

Albeit Lancaster's advice is sound and pretty much correct, he does not account for the determined and those who find alternatives. There are always alternatives, and the smart ones find them. I would never discourage a person attempting to better themselves. All I can say is, know what you are doing or get ready to feel the bitter taste of real business.