I have been hearing a lot of commercials on the radio about Legal zoom and they are targeting Inventors. They are offering to do what is called a Provisional Patent for a low cost. This is a scam... Yes they can do it for over twice the cost it would cost you if you did it yourself. You simply go to USPTO. GOV and in word search type in Provisional Patent. It will pull up everything you need to know about aquiring this Patent. The cost is only $110.00 for submission. A trained Monkey can fill out this form. Your drawings do not have to be done by professionals and you just have to describe what it is your invention does in a few sentences and with no use of legal jargon just in your own simple description. Here are the 2 forms you fill out... Www.uspto. Gov/web/forms/sb0016. Pdf
& uspto. Gov/web/forms/provisionalSB. Pdf
The provisional Patent is only good for 11 year, what it is intended to do is protect your idea and allow you to safely try and market it and see if you can find anybody that would be interested in buying your invention. You may think you have the greatest idea in the world but it may only sell to a nitch market or everybody may turn you down. This also allows you to build your prototype and find manufacturers so you can get the cost of production if you want to make them and sell them yourself. If you are just looking to sell the idea and get royalties this will protect you as well.
Before 1 year is up you will be able to determine if you want to get a Utility Patent (which is the Patent that protects your idea the most).
For only $110.00 you can see if people or the market place will actually desire your product. If so then you are in the top 5%, 90-95% of new ideas fail, (I have had some do good and some not go anywhere.) If that is the case you are only out $110.00 which is a far cry above what Legal Zoom charges.
Also do not ever get suckered in to have them do your Utility Patent or any other Fly by night Inventors commercial you see on TV. They will try and upsale you to this, this is illegal, it is basically the ole Bait and Switch routine, where they make you think it is a safer bet to do the Utility Patent, when in fact the Provisional patent is just as safe for 1 year.
If you must use a Lawyer do it Locally, you cannot mess with someone hundreds of miles away and most of the time not even a lawyer but just a salesman trying to get his commision.
I know this for I fell pray to this a long time ago and hope that I can help someone else not waste their Money or these people I call vultures. I call it the Eureka factor. You get so excited in your idea that all you think about is all the Millions of dollars you are going to make. When you call one of these companies they can sense that in your voice and excitement so they pray on you and they will sucker you out of money here and there with excuses as to they need more money to continue, if you have already sent them money you feel as though you must send more because you do not want to loose what you already have put in. Meanwhile they are telling you that you are the next Einstein and be ready to rake in the dough.in fact it is them that are RAKING it in. Do not play their Game.
Everything you need to now about patents and how to aquire them is at USPTO. GOV Never use a Lawyer in the beggining, just file the "PROVISIONAL PATENT" on your own and then send out your idea. AGAIN it is as safe as any other Patent for 1 year, given that you have your file date earlier than everybody elses.
If the Government were on the Inventors side they would not allow these Vulture fly by night scammers to market themselves. They can do a Provisional Patent in 30 minutes, drawings and all. You can fill it out in 10 minutes... Write your description in 30 minutes and have a decent artist draw your idea... 1 hour if not to detailed. And submit. Within a Month the Patent office will send you your Patent Pending legal form good for 1 year. If it does take off make sure You do apply for a UTILITY PATENT before that year is up... Also go to Google Patents and type in every detail of your invention to see if it has not already been patented, I have seen some of my ideas Patented as early as 1910, so verify your search first. Google is better than sifting through the Patent Office search form and easier.
Also Copyrites and Trademarks are simple to do as well all of this on USPTO. GOV Did my own Trademark the first time in 1 hour. The Lawyers scare you into thinking this is something only they can do.
I will add that if your Patent is a very complex innovation with gears and memory chips and such things as that you can still use the Provisional Patent, but when it comes time to be precise and accurate then definetly use a Lawyer who is an expertise in that area, but keep it local... As they say keep your friends close but your enemies closer, they are not your friend they do not make money off your Patent... They make money off of YOU! They will submit your idea the right way but if it comes back from the Patent office with changes that need to be done, then they expect you to pay for them even though it was them that was at fault, you paid them to do it right in the first place why should you pay them more... Definetly ask this question to them before you hire them and get it in writting!
Good luck and use the money you saved for prototypes or your marketing campaign.
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