| I'd have hoped you did research on this first but maybe that was too optimistic. You might want to read Intellectual Property Online some day. I follow lots of IP stuff on Slashdot as well. I know your response will be something like "it's better than nothing!" or that "it will keep people in-check!" but you and I both know neither of those are true. I have watched a relative of mine fight this ugly, backlogged system for many years and your post is just fluff to say you did it and to poke at other vendors. Believe me, they have thought of this before you. [ http://www.ipfrontline.com/depts/article.asp?id=470&deptid=4&page=2 ] "In reality, though, the provisional patent can end up costing the individual inventor much more than they originally thought and bargained for. A non-provisional patent never matures into a patent and is never prosecuted (or looked at for to see if it meets the requirements for a patentability). Therefore, this postpones the issuance of a patent for a year. Another issue is that the non-provisional filed after the provisional application may not claim any new matter. This causes problems because often the process of drafting a non-provisional patent results in a much broader patent. The main reason for this is that in drafting the claims, the true invention is revealed. This is why most patent agents and attorneys start by drafting the claims of the patent first. Patent agents and attorneys are skilled at trying to see other possible uses and working with inventors to see alternative embodiments of the invention. Often when the inventor is forced to explain their invention to others, many related inventions and ideas will come up. These are often left out of a provisional patent. This can be a costly mistake. The inventor, a year later, wishing to convert their provisional application to a non-provisional may decide to see a patent agent or attorney. At this point, the patent attorney is left with no choice but to file a non-provisional patent and file a related patent on any new matter (either an entirely new patent, divisional, etc.). This results in a patent based on the subject matter claimed in the provisional application and a separate patent on the new matter. As you may have guessed two patents cost twice as much. Not only twice as many filing fees, but twice as many office action responses, twice as many issue fees, and twice the maintenance fees. This is a costly mistake. CONS of Provisional Patents: 1. The total costs are increased. You must pay additional fees to the USPTO, and any patent agent or attorneys fees for filing. 2. You can NOT add new matter. You are left with that which is claimed in the provisional application. 3. Ammunition for patent litigation. Any challenge to the validity of a resulting patent will call into question whether the specification of the provisional patent fully supports the issued patent. This causes many problems, because you have independent inventors turning in papers as patents, then trying to create a patent out of it. It can be tricky and result in an invalid patent. 4. Loss of trade secrets. Once a patent issues, the provisional patent is public information. Therefore, anything included in that application is now free to the public and any trade secrets destroyed." And if you make it this far, you then have to deal with the existing issues of the patent system that everyone agrees is backlogged. [ [ http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/27/2314231 ] ] [ [ http://www.twinturbo.net/net/viewmsg.aspx?forum=general&msg_id=2130034 ] ] [ [ http://www.twinturbo.net/net/viewmsg.aspx?forum=general&msg_id=2127372 ] ] [ [ http://www.twinturbo.net/net/viewmsg.aspx?forum=general&msg_id=2129798 ] ]
 
Avoid Z1 Motorsports - Hacked our forum to delete years of proof about service complaints, questionable ethics and lies about inventing products.
Avoid AMS Products - Killing Z32 product innovation, one quickly copied Chinese part at a time.
SoCalZCrew.com - On a more positive note, come find out how we do it in the West!
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