PatentHelpNow.com- Patent Facts & Fiction – Part 1
A 3-part series debunking the most widespread and misleading myths about patents. Too many inventors and entrepreneurs have false ideas about patents. This is because for every factual, well-researched article, book, or blog on patents, there are at least 5-10 bad ones spreading myths and attractive lies on the subject. Indeed, patent myths have become so widespread that even otherwise intelligent and skeptical people are falling for them. This would not be so bad if the myths in question were harmless. But they are not; virtually all patent myths are harmful or potentially harmful. (Some myths reflect serious misunderstandings of even the basics.) As you learned in our "Before You Patent It" series, getting a patent is a significant investment of time and money. Committing thousands of dollars and years of your life to something, based on false notions and expectations, is not smart. The advice in this series is intended to save you from doing that by debunking the most misleading patent myths. Before tackling specific myths, however, let's begin by defining once and for all what a patent is. The following definition comes straight from the US Patent & Trademark Office's website: What Is a Patent? A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the Patent and Trademark Office. The term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States or, in special cases, from the date an earlier related application was filed, subject to the payment of maintenance fees. US patent grants are effective only within the US, US territories, and US possessions. The right conferred by the patent grant is, in the language of the statute and of the grant itself, "the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling" the invention in the United States or "importing" the invention into the United States. What is granted is not the right to make, use, offer for sale, sell or import, but the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the invention. - "What Are Patents, Trademarks, Servicemarks, and Copyrights?"
Familiarize yourself with this definition, as we will refer back to it often when debunking specific patent myths. You should also reference it when you talk to anyone about patents (especially anyone trying to sell you patent-related products and services.) Does what that person says fit with the above definition of what a patent is? This question alone should keep you safe from 90% of the patent disinformation out there. Now, let's proceed to the 7 specific patent myths we're debunking today: 1) "You can patent an idea." 2) "The US Patent & Trademark Office will stop people from infringing on my patent." 3) "Patents are intrinsically valuable." 4) "Simply having a patent allows you to make money from it." 5) "A patent protects what's in the drawings in the application." 6) "Patenting something means I, and I alone, can make and sell my invention." 7) "Starting with a provisional patent is costlier than starting with a non-provisional patent." As we alluded to earlier, each of these myths is potentially harmful if acted upon. Each of them could result in you spending large amounts of time and money and not getting what you thought you would get (at best) or getting into serious legal or financial trouble (at worst.) So let's take each of these myths, one at a time, and dissect the truth behind each one. Part 2 of this series gets us started with possibly the most widespread patent myth of all - the notion that you can patent an idea. Read Part 2 Now.