Services
Here is a more detailed look at the services you may need and that we provide.
Utility Patents protect your inventive ideas.
Utility patents give their owners exclusive rights to their inventions for a 20-year term, i.e., a patent owner can exclude others from using, making, selling, importing, their patented inventions. Here are some of the steps that may be involved in obtaining an enforceable patent and which we can help with.
- Defining the invention, which can be a new composition or chemical, article or device, process or method of making or doing something, or an improvement in one of those areas.
- Evaluating patentability in light of the prior art.
- Drafting and filing a provisional patent application to obtain a priority date.
- Drafting and filing a U.S. non-provisional utility application.
- Drafting and filing an international patent application under the PCT rules.
- Nationalizing the international application in any desired foreign countries (with the assistance of foreign patent agents).
- Prosecuting the patent application, i.e., answering any office actions issued by the patent office raising various formal objections or rejections.
- Requesting expedited prosecution.
- Requesting continued examination if necessary.
- Drafting and filing an appeal to the PTAB if necessary to overrule an examiner.
- Drafting and filing continuation or divisional applications as needed.
- Filing information disclosures to the patent office.
- Preparing and filing ownership documents or assignments.
- Arranging for issuance of the patent.
- Taking care of maintenance fees thru the 20-year life of the patent.
- Obtaining a certificate of correction or re-examination if necessary.
- Defending against post-grant challenges to the patent.
- Reviewing or drafting a confidentiality agreement, joint research or development agreement, or license agreement.
- Evaluating infringing products and activities. An infringing product must include every element of a patent claim, requiring detailed product knowledge and proper claim interpretation.
- Advice regarding patent marking, whether directly on the product or using virtual marking.
- Clearance or Freedom-to-operate opinions when concerned about a competitor's patent.
Design Patents protect product aesthetics.
Design Patents give similar exclusive rights as a utility patent, but based on the appearance or design of a product, not its functional aspects. Design patents have a term of 15 years. The application consists of various views of the product, and the views could be drawn or photographed. Design patents go through a similar filing, examination and grant process as utility patents. However, design applications typically get approved in half the time or less compared to utility applications. Design patents are also much less expensive than utility patents. To protect a new product for which the inventiveness is mainly in its appearance, design patents can be a valuable, cost effective method of protection. Here are a few other differences between design and utility patents and processes.
- Most foreign countries refer to "industrial designs" instead of design patents.
- There is a special process for registering industrial designs in many countries with a single filing under "the Hague Convention." It has the potential to save on filing costs.
- There are no maintenance fees for a U.S. Design Patent.
- Infringement of a design involves the "ordinary observer" test.
Trademarks protect your brand, name, and reputation.
Trademarks identify your company as the source of your product so that your customers know they are getting authentic goods with the quality they expect from you. Counterfeiters often try to take advantage of your name recognition, often with much inferior product quality. Trademarks can be words, phrases, logos, and even colors or sounds. Registering a mark gives nationwide protection in the country of registration. Trademarks can continue indefinitely as long as they are properly used and maintained. Here are some of the steps that may be involved in obtaining and protecting valuable trademarks.
- Searching for prior use or availability of a proposed mark.
- Evaluating the registrability of a mark or the likelihood of confusing the public.
- Identifying the goods and/or services being sold or represented by the mark.
- Filing for registration of a planned mark or one already in use.
- Answering objections from the Trademark Office.
- Submitting acceptable specimens showing actual, proper use of the trademark.
- Preparing cease-and-desist letters against infringers of the mark.
- Reporting online infringement at retail sites.
- Preparing objections or oppositions against others who attempt to register similar marks.
- Trademark license agreements, coexistence agreements, etc.
- Keeping up with renewal requirements.
- Registering in foreign countries of commercial importance to the company. There is a process available to register a new mark in many foreign countries with a single filing.