Protect your Property with a Patent Lawyer

You wouldn’t leave your small business’s valuable merchandise unattended or unsecured,
but have you sufficiently protected your company’s name or a cutting-edge service from
competitors who are two steps behind yet willing to capitalize on a good idea?

by Tamara Holmes NFIB.com

If you’re unsure, it may be time to consult with a patent lawyer.

While many people believe patent lawyers deal strictly with inventions, other areas also fall
under their legal domain.

The patenting process offers "the opportunity to get legal protection for valuable inventions,
ranging from communications to technology," says Clint Gerdine, a patent lawyer for the
Washington, D.C.-based law firm Kenyon & Kenyon.

Not only can companies apply for a patent to keep rivals from manufacturing a similar
invention, they can also seek a patent to stop competitors from mimicking a successful
process, such as a proprietary marketing procedure.

A patent lawyer can also help out with securing trademarks, which identify a name or phrase
as something that is unique to a particular business.

While you may think it only logical that your company be awarded patents and trademarks
for its original concepts, the process can be long and tedious, which is where a good patent
lawyer comes in. Securing a patent or trademark is not merely a matter of requesting one;
legal arguments must be made for why your invention, concept or name is worthy of legal
protection in the first place.

In fact, Gerdine says, it’s not unusual for patent applications to be rejected the first time
they’re submitted. If an application for a patent or a trademark is rejected, a patent lawyer
will amend the argument and re-submit the application under new parameters that he or she
believes will make it more likely to be accepted.

All in all, the process can take up to three years, partly because the United States Patent
and Trademark Office receives so many applications that must be evaluated. But most of the
process is transparent to the business owner, Gerdine says, since a patent lawyer takes
care of the details and legal arguments, bringing the business into the fold only when
necessary.

What should you expect when you hire a patent lawyer? First, he or she will interview you
about your invention or idea. Then a search will be conducted to make sure a patent or
trademark hasn’t already been issued for a similar product or service. The lawyer will then file
the application and submit arguments supporting the case.

Business owners who aren’t sure their product or service is original can conduct a search for
similar patents or trademarks before selecting a lawyer by heading over to the Patent and
Trademark Office’s Web site at http://www.uspto.gov.

But even if a company finds that an idea has not been used before, it may not be worth the
expense of hiring a lawyer, which can run between $5,000 and $15,000. If the idea isn’t going
to be profitable, it might not be worth the trouble of the patent process.

An invention promotion firm can help a small business owner determine whether it’s worth
the cost. Such companies evaluate products and ideas and let business owners know if the
concepts can potentially make money.

"There’s a difference between something being able to be patented and something being
commercially valuable," Gerdine says.

If you decide that the patent or trademark process is right for your company, Gerdine
suggests reading Patent It Yourself, by David Pressman to get an overview of the process. A
patent lawyer will guide you through the rest.

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