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DEADLY MISTAKE #6

GETTING A BAD PATENT
FROM A PATENT ATTORNEY

Watch Legacy Full Version (53mins)

Don’t Put Patent Attorneys On A Pedestal

You might think going to a patent attorney ensures you will get the best patent protection possible/available for your invention. After all, they charge a lot of money and patent attorneys are ‘the experts’, right? Unfortunately, that is not the case and patent attorneys make mistakes (in terms of getting you the best patent protection possible) a significant amount of the time.

As a former scholar who is a user-interface specialist in product design, I can tell you, the ‘engineering/technical’ background that nearly all patent attorneys have is not the ideal background for a patent practitioner helping start-up inventors. Why? Because deep profound engineering skills and knowledge, whilst good when working for big companies in industries like the auto-motive industry, are rarely of any use at all for start-up inventors projects/inventions, because, in my experience, almost 0% of start-up inventors’ invention are significantly complex from an engineering point of view. My skills/ability as a user-interface specialist, for example, (which give me the ability to design the invention into the perfect version of the product, and also to consider many different ways that a patent claim could be designed around), will tend to be far more relevant and important to the vast majority of start-up inventors projects (and therefore their patenting), compared to a patent attorney with (even stellar) engineering skills/background.

On top of that, my background as a former scholar, and the fact that I have quite a creative background seems to give me an edge when it comes to the ‘vision’ aspect of working out what the best possible patenting strategy/strategies is, to get your invention the best possible patent protection. (I’ve seen patent attorneys struggle with this, and, if tested (eg in a court of law), I can provide live examples, in some cases where I’ve had to correct and/or intervene in patent attorney work because they have not been heading in the right direction, (with the claiming), in terms of getting the best possible patent protection for the project). In other words, there’s also a ‘creative aspect’ to ascertaining what the best possible patenting strategy is, to get the best possible patent protection for your invention. (I would say this ‘creative aspect’ is about 10-15% of the process, so it’s not the ‘main bulk’ of the process, but the problem is, if your patent practitioner can’t get THIS right, your patenting won’t be heading in the right direction).

Am I saying all patent attorneys are bad at what they do? Of course not! A good patent attorney is potentially worth their weight in gold. But you just need to be aware that they are highly fallible human beings, and putting them on a pedestal, (and ‘assuming’ they will get you the best patent protection possible/available), just because you yourself do not understand patenting, or because it’s ‘easier’ for you to think in that way, is a possible road to disaster with your patenting.

Two solutions here. (If you do both, you’ll put yourself in a very positive situation):

The LightSpeed PerfectPatent™ Service

We have our own full non-provisional patent application drafting and filing service. (It’s called the LightSpeed PerfectPatent™ service, at step 4 of The Inventor’s Journey™). Whilst it won’t be me drafting your non-provisional patent application, it will be a professional patent attorney or patent agent, and I also ‘float’, looking over work done at SHIINE® ENTERPRISE, and just checking whether any patenting strategies have been missed, etc. So there’s an extra level of ‘cover’.

(We also have the huge benefit of getting your official patent office results back in as quick as 2-3 weeks from filing, as opposed to the 2-3 YEARS that it usually takes at the USPTO, and then potentially getting you free acceleration of your patent processing at the USPTO and many other patent offices you could file at).

Don’t believe it could be that fast? Watch this video of me giving Canadian inventor Giuseppe his official patent office results just 18 days after filing. The next inventor that gets their results back this quickly could be you.

You can see more about the LightSpeed PerfectPatent™ service below.

The LightSpeed PerfectPatent™ Service

Breakdown

Our LightSpeed PerfectPatent™ service is a ground-breaking service where we draft, file and prosecute to patent a full non-provisional patent application for you, and get your official patent office results in just weeks, rather than years.

1. Filing at the UK Patent Office First

One of our patent practitioners will draft your full non-provisional patent application and file it for search and examination at the UK Patent Office (UKIPO) first, even if your main aim is to get American patent protection. The reason is this- if you get your patent allowed at the UKIPO, you can get free accelerated patent processing at many other patent offices, including the USPTO! (This can lead to you getting your US patent granted quicker, and for less cost).

On top of that, the UKIPO is not only one of the best patent offices in the world, it’s also many times faster than the USPTO, often giving you official patent office results only 4-8 weeks from when we file for you, with free acceleration. This is a huge advantage of using our system, especially if you’re an American inventor trying to get US patent protection.

2. Prosecution To Patent

Sometimes your claim for patent is allowed straight away by the patent office. If not, your patent practitioner will respond accordingly throughout the examination phase, to try to get you the absolute best patent protection possible. This often involves amending the claims to try to get them allowed for patent, or providing responses to the patent office examiner to argue why your patent should be allowed despite the ‘prior art’ the patent office examiner found in their own patent search.

3. Claims Allowed!

The key moment in the process is when the UKIPO patent office examiner deems claim(s) in your patent application to be allowable for patent. Claims being ‘allowed’ is the pre-cursor to your patent application being granted for patent, and means the examiner deems you’ve claimed an invention concept that is new, inventive, and that can be granted for patent.
Once an important claim has been allowed, we will work to make sure a whole claimset (ie all claims) are allowable for patent, in readiness for you potentially filing those same claims at multiple patent offices and getting patent protection perhaps in America and other countries/territories. We know how to streamline the process to make this happen.
And having your claims allowed for patent by the UK Patent Office is key for another reason, because once this has happened, it opens up the possibility of free accelerated patent processing at the USPTO and almost every other major patent office in the world via an agreement called the Patent Prosecution Highway.

4. Free Accelerated Processing At Multiple Patent Offices

The UKIPO’s Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) agreements with numerous patent offices worldwide allow for free accelerated patent processing at those other patent offices if your claim for patent is deemed allowable by the UKIPO. Not only this, but if your invention is deemed patentable by the UKIPO, it’s highly likely to be deemed patentable at first time of asking at those other patent offices when we file at them for you via the PPH, including the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
In other words, using SHIINE® ENTERPRISE and The Inventor’s Journey™, you can leverage the speed and quality of our home patent office, (the UKIPO), to set you up for far easier, quicker, and cheaper patenting in America and many other territories, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and many other powerful economies such as Japan, South Korea, Germany, etc.

5. Deadlines For Filing At Other Patent Offices

As mentioned, once your invention is allowed for patent at the UKIPO, it opens up the possibility for free accelerated processing at many different patent offices, including the USPTO. But The Inventor’s Journey™ system is fast, and once your invention has been deemed allowable for patent at the UKIPO, it may be worth holding back just for now on filing at those other patent offices. There are several reasons for this:
First of all, you have 12 months within which to file at those other patent offices from your first filing date. Your first filing date will tend to be the provisional patent application we drafted and filed for you at step 2 of The Inventor’s Journey™. So you have time. And since we aim to get you through all 8 steps of The Inventor’s Journey™ within 12 months of your provisional patent application filing date, it opens up the opportunity, once your claims have been allowed at the UKIPO, to hold off on your patent filing at other territories, and instead focus on moving ahead with the advanced product design and prototyping steps that come next, followed by the launch of your invention project. 
In a best case scenario, in step 8 of The Inventor’s Journey™, (Invention Launch), you may be able to fund your patent filing at those other patent offices by crowdfunding your invention project, or successfully licensing your invention, all within your 12 month deadline for filing at those other patent offices. There’s also the possibility of filing a PCT application to extend your deadline for filing at other patent offices by another 18 months.
We can help advise you on all these issues so the best decision can be made for your project.

iPerfectPending™ (Video Program)

There’s a program I created, called iPerfectPending™. It focuses very heavily on the ‘claim 1’ for your invention, (ie how to define your invention in a claim that will, in theory, get you ‘perfect’ patent protection of your invention).

This comes as part of the Patent Pending Package programs, and you can get access to that for as little as $69/month for 6 months, (or save money with one payment). I’m including a Link Here [Opens in a new window] in case that interests you.

The reason this program is part of the possible ‘solution’ to avoid getting a bad patent is that, if you start to understand about how a perfect ‘claim 1’ for your invention works, you would more than likely be at a level where you could spot if there was a MISTAKE in the claim 1 (or generally the patenting strategy) that your patent practitioner had made. I think that’s the ideal situation. So that’s why I think this program could be very, very helpful, in terms of making it less likely this could happen to you and your invention. (PS If you happen to have already started with another patent practitioner or company, and can’t go back, it may well be worth getting this program to get yourself to a level where you can check your patent practitioners work, in terms of the CLAIMS they draft and file. It may well give you the ability to STOP a bad claim/claiming strategy from being filed, speak it through with your patent practitioner, and come to the right conclusion as to what should be filed.

Bonus Video
Patenting Crash Course (Must watch)

A lot of inventors have enjoyed this video and taken a lot from it. In this video, you’ll see how I cam into contact with American inventor Tom Schultheis, based in Santa Barbera, California. He thought he had just contacted me to get his US non-provisional patent application (already filed at the USPTO) filed at the UK Patent Office to get UK patent protection. But when I broke his proposed patent within around a minute, and showed him that his patent application was going to get him very limited patent protection compared to the broad protection of his invention he thought it would help him get, it started a process that ended with me getting him incredible patent protection both in the UK and US. I hope you enjoy. (And click the GEAR icon on the player to increase the speed to 1.5x if you think I speak too slow in the video)

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