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Patents for Poets
What's a patent and Why do I need one?
The pizza story
When I was in the university there were courses in the sciences that liberal arts majors would take to satisfy their requirements for graduation. The students at these courses were unwilling attendees trying to get by with the minimum of effort. Usually they found science courses confusing in the least and often they were actually hostile to the subject. These courses acquired names that told more about the students than the courses. One of them was termed "Physics for Poets [POP]".
Sometimes the lecturer surprised the students and made POP so interesting and engaging that they actually enjoyed it. Its doubtful that many switched their majors to the sciences but at least they were no longer hostile and could make much better decisions when science was in some way involved in what they were doing later in life.
Patents are a subject that can appear every bit as arcane to a layman as a college Physics course to a liberal arts major. While most people in high tech fields become familiar with patents, people in other business activities mostly ignore the subject even when it would be in their interest and sometimes essential to understand the subject better.
Most people understand that a patent is needed to protect an invention you make. What is often overlooked is you also need to be aware of the inventions owned by others when you are running a business.
Lets say you are running a very routine business like for example a Pizza parlor. No one is likely to sue you for making a pepperoni pizza using the known standard methods, but suppose you do something different.
You create a new pizza using what you think are clever tricks and come up with something that really catches on. The idea of patenting your new process never even occurs to you.
Then to your dismay, someone hears about your success and one day you receive a letter from an attorney threatening suit and ordering you to "cease and desist" making your new pizzas because you are infringing someone's patent on the pizza making process that you thought YOU had invented.
It doesn't have to be this way. If when you realized there was something outside of the ordinary about your new pizza process you had contacted a knowledgeable patent practitioner such as Business Metamorphosis for a "freedom to use search". That would tell you what patents already existed like your Pizza making process.
If the search found nothing to worry about you still could patent your new pizza process or if you chose not to, you could publish your invention. That way , no attorney could ever stop you from making your delicious pizza with a court order. Even if the search did find something you would have the opportunity to license the original invention from its owner, that would give you a patent protected product and it would likely be much less expensive to pay for the license than to go to court.
To learn more about the patent process and make use of all the free resources we offer check us out at www.alacartepatents.com , write us at rblazey@businessmetamorphosis.com or give us a call at (585) 520-3539
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