A patent is similar to a copyright, but costs $10,000 for each one that's formally filed. A
provisionary patent costs a lot less, lets you use "Patent Pending" on your idea until you file
the formal one. A patent covers a utility or function of a product, that was the result of an
inventive process. That hard drive in your computer has lots of patents protecting it from being
duplicated by another manufacturer. That stick of deodorant you use every morning? Possibly
covered by patents, depending on the manufacturing process. Even those pretty gel candles have a
patented ingredient in them. Juno? There's a patent for its ability to update the client software
via specially encoded e-mails you recieve through the client. Cipro was almost in danger of losing
the patent in Canada due to the shortages resulting after the anthrax scare we had last year.
Utility patents generally cover the manufacturing of an item, as well as the item itself. Patents
aren't limited to utilities. Design patents, like the shape of the package some brands of soap
come in, even plants can be patented, but you have to have proof that the new plant was created by
the process you did, which is described in the exact specifics in the "Claims" section of the
patent. There are local groups in the U.S. that help inventors get legal help and assistance to
get their ideas ready for sale to a manufacturing company, as well information on getting patents
in other countries. There's also a couple of Yahoo groups. If you want to hunt patents for
yourself, try
http://www.patenthunter.com for a 10 day trial. You'll need to get a TIFF viewer to
view the images it downloads from the
http://www.uspto.gov website, which is updated every
Tuesday.
= = = Original message = = =
Subject: Re: copyrights?
In a nutshell:
Any original creation you make is copyrighted to you the moment you make
it.
___________________________________________________________
Sent by ePrompter, the premier email notification software.
Free download at
http://www.ePrompter.com.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
HotJobs - Search Thousands of New Jobs
http://www.hotjobs.com
Received on Wed Aug 07 2002 - 22:54:39 CDT