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Patent Pending Made Simple is a podcast for inventors who are looking to learn more about the patent process
Hello and welcome to this episode
of Patent Pending Made Simple.
I'm your host, Summer Shaw,
and joining me is Jamie Brophy.
Jamie, how are you?
Hey, Summer.
I'm good.
How are you?
I am doing all right.
I am glad to be recording today.
It's going to be a little bit different.
I feel like we're usually talking about
just trying to educate our listeners.
But today's episode, I'm hopeful that we
can do something a little bit different
and maybe we can give them some resources
so that the listeners feel like they are
equipped and armed with some additional
resources to go out and tackle some The
world of, provisional patents and being
patent pending and all that good stuff.
What do you think?
Yeah, I think that's great.
I think we're going to provide a
lot of useful information today.
There's so many great resources out there
for independent inventors and some that
you want to stay away from, but I think
we're going to provide a lot of great
resources today that are very reliable.
And so hopefully people will learn a lot.
. Yeah.
It's, it is nice that these resources
are out there and I'm glad we have them.
Found at least some of them.
'cause we try to be a resource
to or for independent inventors.
But we don't necessarily need to reinvent
the wheel on some of these things, right?
So if there are high quality resources
that already exist that are accessible,
I think it's worthwhile to highlight
them and point people to those things.
So we're not the sole source of resources
and help for independent inventors.
Yeah.
Definitely, and I think, the top resource
that I always recommend to people is
the United States Patent and Trademark
Office website, which is just uspto.
gov.
There's a lot of great resources
on there for independent inventors.
There's a whole section.
That's directed specifically
at independent inventors.
Have you had a chance to poke
around on there at all, Summer?
I have.
And boy, there is a lot of stuff there.
I would have expected that, the Patent
Office would leave the inventors out
in the cold to fend for themselves
when they're prosecuting a patent
application or applying for a patent,
but it's actually the opposite.
There is so much stuff there that
I was like, wow, how are we going
to, organize all this information
in a easy to access kind of a way.
So there's so much stuff there that.
It would take us more than
an hour to cover everything.
Jamie do you want to walk us through maybe
what's the top resource that you would
recommend, and maybe we can talk about a
couple of things that are worthwhile that
people should click into and check out.
Yeah, definitely.
I'm just going to talk about,
how to navigate to what I'm.
What we're discussing,
if you just go to USPTO.
gov, that's for the United States
Patent and Trademark Office, so USPTO.
gov, and then across the top, there's
a few menus, and the one on the left
is patents, and then under patents,
there are inventor and entrepreneur
resources, and then you can.
Yeah, there's a lot.
It talks about, just the basics
of patent stuff, which is a lot of
what we talk about on this podcast.
But there's also, first of all, there's
information about patent scams, which
I think is important to know how to get
started on your application, what to
know before you apply, get help to apply.
The patent office offers free services.
There's an inventor assistance center.
I think they also have a list
in there of pro bono resources.
Let's see what else there's this inventor
info chat that sounds really interesting.
I don't know that much about it.
So yeah, that's just basically
what's on the PTO website.
Is there anything you would like
to talk about specifically Summer?
No, I think that's a that's a good list.
The one thing that piqued my interest
a little bit that I was not expecting
for it to be there, but there is this
listing of for patent licensing purposes.
So I didn't even know this existed
until we started poking around Jamie.
But if you want to license your invention,
you can list it at the patent office.
There is an official Gazette or a board
where you can list patents for sale or
license I guess in the official Gazette,
there is a 25 listing fee but that
may be a great way if you're looking
to monetize your invention or license
your invention to put it on there.
I'm sure the folks who are.
in the business of licensing inventions
or purchasing inventions are checking
them out and seeing what's available
from an innovation perspective.
Yeah, that's cool.
I wasn't aware of that either.
The USPTO website also has a
list of licensed practitioners.
They have a list of everybody that's
registered to practice before the USPTO.
So any.
Patent attorneys or patent agents
that are active and are registered to
practice are listed on the PTO website.
Yep, that's right.
So you can find licensed
professionals that way.
There is also this pro
bono program, right?
So there are law firms and inventors.
and nonprofits who offer assistance
to inventors on a pro bono basis.
Many of them have requirements
that you need to qualify for
before you can receive assistance.
But those may be worth checking out
if you qualify for those programs.
And I think there's a specific
page for it where you can search
for people based on the state that
you're in, which is very helpful.
Yeah.
So yeah, a lot of good PTO website.
I, would definitely
recommend starting there.
What other resources are out there
for independent inventors, Summer?
Yeah, so the next one I'd like to
talk about is search tools, right?
So a big part of being successful
with your patent application is
doing a good search to see if your
invention Meets the requirements or
the qualifications to obtain a patent.
Two of them being novelty, which means
that nobody should have done it before
and non obviousness, which means that
it can be an obvious modification
of something that already exists.
So often, as we've discussed in
prior podcasts, Jamie, you'd want
to do a search to see if your
invention would be considered novel
and non obvious over everything
that came before your filing date.
So having A good search or a good idea
about how to do the search is important.
The patent office actually has a
pretty robust patent database that you
can access and poke around and just
try to type in some keywords with,
but it is fairly complex and maybe
a little cumbersome to use Jamie.
So there are some other tools.
What is your go to patent
searching resource or database?
Yeah, so as far as free patent
search tools if I'm just looking
for something real quick, my,
usually my go to is patents.
google.
com.
It's pretty easy to use and I find
that, it gives me pretty good results.
Yeah.
I don't do a ton of searching.
But usually I'm just looking
for something real quick.
So yeah, patents.
google.
com I would say is the main one that
I use, but I know you have a couple
great ones that you like to use as well.
Summer?
Yeah, absolutely.
And Ian does all of our patent searches
and maybe we should have him on the
podcast at one point so he can walk
people through the search process.
Cause I don't do a lot of
searches myself anymore.
But But he's pretty knowledgeable.
So maybe that's a topic for a future date.
But for this podcast episode, the one that
I would like to highlight is called PQ AI.
I think the website is project pq.
ai.
They use AI to help you do patent
searches, which I think is very
helpful for most folks who are not
used to or trained in patent searches.
You won't know.
All the different layers of
searching that you'd have to do.
So I like PQAI for that reason.
They will do a lot of that
stuff in the backend based on a
search prompt that you submit.
So all you had to submit is a paragraph
or two of your invention, and then
it will formulate a search query and
it will search in the right classes
and categories of information.
It's a really nifty tool
and it's open source.
So anyone can use it.
It's a free resource.
I like that one.
I also like this other tool called
Pantzilla the URL is quite long so
I'll link it in our show notes but
that one does a pretty good job of
searching the European patent database
and then there's the international
patent database called WIPO, W I P
O, that is pretty user friendly from
a search perspective and helps you
do international searching the U.
S.
patent database for example
will only search the U.
S.
patent database.
So WIPO, and then there's the EPO, the
European Patent Office, has a search tool
as well, which is pretty user friendly.
So I would check those out if
you're in the market or trying to
do a patent search on your own.
Yeah.
Oh, that AI one sounds really cool.
I'm going to have to check that out.
Yeah.
I think, we've talked about this, but
with our software that helps inventors
write a patent application patent pending
made simple, we're planning on hopefully
integrating that into our software
because I think it's a really cool tool.
Yeah.
Oh, that would be really nice to have
that integrated into the software.
What a great idea.
We'll see if that can make it work, right?
But I agree.
I think it'd be nice.
The other nice thing about it would
be that, people would not have
to do a separate search, right?
So you can, submit your answers
to our questions to get a patent
draft written, and then the same
answers could be used to do a search.
So you can have some time efficiency
there and kill two birds with one
stone, although that's a pretty violent
metaphor, but something like that.
Yeah, that would be cool.
I think it's always a great idea to
have a professional search done, at
least for starting out purposes, it's
a good idea to, know what's out there
and do a search on your own and see
if you can find anything relevant.
To inform what direction you should
go with your patent application.
Yeah, I think those, all of those
are really great search resources.
What else besides, so we've
talked about the PTO website.
We've talked about search tools.
Are there any other resources
you can think of that, are out
there for independent inventors?
Yes.
The other big one I think are local
inventor groups or inventor clubs.
Essentially every major city in the U S
has an an independent inventors group.
So in San Antonio, for example,
there is the Alamo Inventors Club.
I recently did a presentation there and
I was also invited and did a presentation
at the Kansas City Inventors Group.
There are these inventor groups.
Everywhere in every
major metropolitan city.
So I would encourage
you to check that out.
Most of the folks who run these
organization, these are nonprofits
they volunteer to run them.
So it's really a labor of love for them.
And they are usually veterans
of the patenting process
and the licensing process.
So they're just a wealth of knowledge.
So I really liked that.
It's a free resource.
Pre pandemic, actually the Alamo
inventors group would, bring in pizza
every other Wednesday and, people
would get together and talk and, you
build a nice community around it.
I remember they used to also go to Cracker
Barrel after the meetings and you'd have.
Really lively discussion
about patents and licensing.
And sometimes those would
stretch out to like midnight.
So it's, it can be a fun
group and a great community.
When you're inventing something,
I think by definition, you're
doing something new, right?
That nobody else is doing.
And it can be a lonely experience.
Endeavor where you may have other people
who think you're, maybe doing something
that you shouldn't be doing or, folks
mostly think that you're going to fail
and there's a high likelihood of failure.
Arming yourself with a community of
supportive individuals can help you
and hopefully guide you and mentor you
through that process is really helpful.
And if you're a veteran inventor,
I think passing down that knowledge
and helping new inventors with
their product inventions is also
pretty gratifying, I'm sure.
And it sounds like fun.
They're shutting down the
Cracker Barrel at midnight.
That's like my kind of group right there.
Yeah, I love these inventors groups
because, there's so much for inventors
to think about besides just the patent.
Patents are our department, the subject
of this podcast, but there's so many
other things for them to think about.
So I think these inventor groups
are a great resource because they
talk about everything that inventors
need to take into consideration.
So yeah, I love those.
Thanks.
and they also bring in the speakers.
I know all of the inventor
groups bring in new speakers on
a monthly or a bimonthly basis.
So they, the folks who run these
organizations have a network and
they talk about who needs it.
Are the best practitioners or a support
organizations or individuals who can help
and guide inventors in their journey.
So they're actually a really good as
sourcing if you need help not just
from patent attorneys, but from other
professionals the folks who speak
at these organizations are usually
wedded and recommended by others.
So it's a great way to just meet
other folks in the space who
may help you in your journey.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Sounds like a great one.
, so anything else, Summer?
Are there any other resources
that you typically recommend?
Yeah we talked about this a little
bit in our USPTO section, but
there are law schools and non
profits who help inventors as well.
So when I was in law school, we
used to have this pro bono clinic
where we helped independent
inventors with their inventions.
I had I remember being in law school.
I helped this guy who built
a knife for cutting cheese
curds protect his invention.
So that was, it was great experience
for me, but it was I think he got
a really good patent out of that
process and hopefully some good
education out of that process.
So check out your local law school.
They may have pro bono clinics or legal
clinics that may help you and assist
you with your IP or patenting needs.
And then I mentioned the nonprofits.
A lot of them are listed
on the USPTO website.
If you do some searching
they're also very good.
They usually act like a matchmaker.
Attorneys who are interested in
providing pro bono services will
sign up with these organizations.
And then whenever there is
a new person who needs help.
The organization will send out an
email and say, Hey, this person
needs help with this technology.
It, would somebody like to
help on a pro bono basis?
And then usually you'll have several,
several attorneys volunteering to help
that one client, which is really nice.
Wow.
Yeah.
That sounds like a great resource as well.
Wow.
So we've gone over a lot of them.
Does that cover it or
is there anything else?
Oh one more thing that I would recommend
is a book every time I have a client
who calls or a prospective client
who calls needs help with the patent
licensing process, I always send them
to this book called One Simple Idea.
And the author author's
name is Stephen Key.
He's written a lot of books on
patent licensing and he's licensed
a ton of products himself.
He's very experienced.
He's been through the
patent litigation process.
So I've had some conversations.
We actually, Steven and I wrote a
couple of, co wrote a couple of articles
together on patents and licensing process.
He's very knowledgeable but I would,
I highly recommend you check out
this book called One Simple Idea.
It's a great primer or introduction
into the world of patent licensing,
and it walks you through that process
from start to finish so you can start
strategizing and start figuring out
what you're getting yourself into
before you embark down that road.
It's nice to see how other people have
done it and what the best practices are.
Yeah, absolutely.
Another great resource.
So yeah, we've gone over a lot of them.
I don't want to leave
out our website though.
Like we, our website is there as
well for people to submit questions
or ideas for future episodes.
So do we want to shout that out Summer?
Yeah, let's do that.
Our website is outlierpatentattorneys.
com slash patentpending slash podcast.
But really anywhere on the website
you can, leave comments and learn
about the patent process some more.
We have a blog section
or an insight section.
We cover a lot of different topics related
to provisional patent applications,
which might be of interest, but of
course our podcast, each podcast episode
has its own webpage and you can leave
us a comment there, or you can leave
us a comment on YouTube or on Spotify.
We started.
Experimenting with polls and
questions within the Spotify app.
So you can ask us questions
there or leave us a voicemail.
All of those are great ways to
interact with us and great ways to
tell us what you would like for us
to cover so that we can help you in
your inventorship journey as well.
Awesome.
Okay.
I think we covered a lot of ground today.
We went through a lot of great resources
for our independent inventor listeners.
And I think we covered everything.
What do you think, Summer?
Yeah, I think we did.
Yeah, there is a lot of stuff out there.
And be, arming yourself with the, with
these tools and education, I think will
make your journey through the patent
world hopefully a little bit smoother.
Yeah.
Definitely.
Okay.
I'll talk to you next time, Summer.
Yeah.
Thanks, Jamie.