How To Retain Patent Rights During Disclosure
Has this ever happened to you? You come up with a great idea for an invention. But before giving any thought to getting a patent, you contact a company and offer to sell your lucrative and profitable idea. Have you forfeited your rights to patent the invention? How do you disclose a proposal without forfeiting ownership?
You may still be able to patent your invention. The patent application will require proof that you came up with the idea first. One way to establish you are the inventor is to provide evidence of correspondence between you and the company discussing the idea.
However, a more effective method to avoid forfeiting a claim to an invention is to plan ahead by filing a provisional application for patent. A provisional application grants an earlier filing date as well as “Patent Pending” status to be used when disclosing your idea. Protection lasts up to 12 months from the filing date and is a relatively inexpensive investment. Thus, you are able to disclose your invention to potential buyers without fear of it being stolen and without the higher application costs associated with non-provisional patent applications. Before the 12-month period lapses, you can either allow the pendency status to expire or convert the provisional application to a non-provisional application, which will provide the benefit, if the application is granted, of being able to sue for patent infringement.
