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Foreign Patent Timeline
The Likely Buyer
Resources for Entrepreneurial Quadrants
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 Newsletter - August 2013
  This newsletter is for the benefit of: our customers both current and past, our workers , board members and friends including those of you we haven't talked to recently. Please feel free to forward to others who might be interested in our activities.   

Foreign Patent Timeline

In a previous newsletter we introduced the concept of a timeline to describe the patent process taking as an analogy a superhighway with on ramps and off ramps.  However the timeline we displayed only applied to patent applications filed in the US.   To include foreign filings we need to make some additions to the timeline.

 

For Foreign filings it is very important to take the actions at the proper time or you may loose all your patent rights.

 

The first addition to the timeline is straightforward.  In addition to the US patent search one might request a foreign search.  Often inventors search only in the US using the argument that most foreign patents are also filed here.  However some are not.  We recommend that a US search be done first and then when a patent is found in a foreign search that is a duplicate it can be excluded.  We have actually used these duplicates as translations of foreign patents in difficult to translate languages.

 

The next step is filing of what is called a PCT.   A PCT is essentially a universal patent application that is accepted by all countries which signed the "Patent Co-Operation Treaty"  which is most of the companies in the world involved in IP.

The PCT can be filed at the same time as the US patent application since is essentially the same document.   However at the time of filing the inventor must also select those countries in which he might eventually want to ultimately file patent applications.   The inventor has 30 months to actually decide on the countries to file in.

 

The PCT gives rise to a patent application called a WIPO which is searchable on line.   When the inventor finally has to make a decision on countries to file in,  it may be based on business issues such as the size of market in that country for the invention.   For every country selected there additional fees to be paid to that country and also fees to translate the WIPO.  Like the US patent application the WIPO is published 18 months after filing open to the world for opposition.

 

After 30 months the inventor must decide which countries to have the patent examined in.  The patent then begins its way through the prosecution process in  each selected country .  If successful a patent will issue in that country.   It is also possible to file for a European patent which is good in many European countries.  The EP is a bundle of individual country patents, not a single European document.

 

To learn more about European patent searches and other patent issues please contact us.

 

 

To contact us,  just send an email to rblazey@businessmetamorphosis.com or  give us a call at  (585) 520-3539  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who is the Likely Buyer?

 
ITTr Logo 
Who should I sell or license my patent to?  That is a frequent question that inventors make of ITTr and commonly the answers that we give are not what they expect.
 
Most inventors think that the best buyer for their concept is a "big player"  in their field.  After all those players have the best resources for developing new products and full access to important market channels.
 
However,  even though landing one of these "big fish"  is highly desirable,  it is also very difficult.   Most of these companies are heavily defended against outside inventors. 
 
Not only do they have a group of internal researchers who may view an outsiders invention as a threat ,  but the companies are so afraid of lawsuits that they often set up bogus "patent solicitation"  operations whose sole purpose is to direct inventors to a "dirty"  member of the company so that any future claims by outsiders that their idea was "stolen"  can be dismissed by showing that the inventors idea was only shown to this one person who did nothing with it.
 
Lately I have found that big companies are taking another step and outsourcing this function to "patent submission companies".  These companies will "submit patents to industry" usually for a large fee and basically do nothing except mail out filers to the large companies who will promptly discard them.  By using one of these companies the large company gets themselves even further removed from an inventors  potential lawsuit.
 
So while we don't rule out contacting large companies, we view them as difficult targets and a place where you need an internal contact to breach the bureaucratic barriers.
 
Smaller companies are not nearly as heavily defended.  and what's more, since they lack large internal R&D organizations they may well be more receptive to ideas coming in from outside. Its still necessary to have an internal contact 
 
If a small company is successful in making and selling your product it may be picked up by a large one later.  One of the best examples I have of this is "Chicken Soup for the Soul".  This book was first bought by  a publisher called Health Communications which was almost bankrupt at the time,  and this was after the writers had tried 140 other publishers first.   After the huge success of the Chicken Soup series, the writers move on to bigger publishers who were now eager to deal with them

 
To learn more, just send and email to rblazey@ittrifecta.com  or  phone me at (585) 520-3539

Trade Show Followup for Vendors

 

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 We have spoken in this space about the process [Called TSF] that Penguin has for following up on leads gathered at a trade show by attendees.
 
However Vendors who exhibit at a show have an even stronger incentive to followup with people who show up at their booths.  While the vendor is less likely to simply throw the extra cards he picks up from attendees into a drawer,   they still rarely have the time to followup on every lead the show produces.
 
Usually they focus on those visitors who look like they might be likely customers or have asked for specific information to be send to them  
 
Ask yourself how often you have been contacted by a vendor after a show if you didn't have a specific business deal or question which needed answering?
 
My guess is the answer is "rarely".  This means to us that like the attendees who don't have time to followup on all the leads they generate a trade show ,  the vendors don't have time to do so either.   So  Penguin's TSF should be as useful to them as to  attendees.
 
Also we have met with some people in the Trade Show industry who would be glad to make use of TSF  to provide other services that vendors might want to offer as part of their followup process such as sending out brochures.
 
As Penguin works with such resources in the Trade Show industry we hope to bring products to the vendors that will provide the same total coverage of developed contacts that we will bring to trade show attendees.
 
To learn more about TSF checkout the Rochester Penguin Group webpage www.rochesterpenguingroup.com ,  email me at rblazey@businessmetamorphosis.com or                             call (585) 520-3539

 

 
We appreciate your responses to our newsletters.  Please send us your comments.  We are always interested in what you want to know.
 
Sincerely,
 

Richard Blazey
Business Metamorphosis LLC
Disclaimers 

 
Please realize that this newsletter contains only our opinions on patent matters.  We are not authorized to give legal advice.  If you are seeking such advice please contact an attorney.
 

 

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