Kansas Patents Legal Questions

There are two basic types of patents that could apply to an article of clothing.  The cost of obtaining a patent depends in part on which type of patent is right for your invention. The first type of patent is a utility patent.  A utility patent covers an invention that is new, non-obvious and useful.  Utility patents cover either articles of manufacture, apparatuses (machines), processes or compositions of matter.  The subject invention needs to be something whose value is in its utility, its usefulness. There are utility inventions for articles of clothing.  These could include new clasps, new zippers, new methods of manufacturing the clothing, etc.  Utility patent applications are typically fairly expensive.  My firm charges from $3,500 to $5,000 plus costs (averaging another $1,000) to prepare and file a utility patent application.  Altogether for utility application preparation and filing, total outlay using our firm ranges from about $5,000 to about $8,000 for most applications. The second type of patent is a design patent.  A design patent covers an invention that is a new, non-obvious and decorative aspect of an article of manufacture.  For these inventions, the value is in their decorativeness, the way they look. Design patent applications are much simpler, as legal instruments.  They consist mostly of the drawings of different views of the article.  Typical legal fees to prepare and file the design patent application are $1,000, plus costs.  Additional costs for the drawings can be $1,500 or more.  With filing fees and other costs, altogether for design patent application preparation and filing, total outlay using our firm is generally in the range of $2,750 to $3,000. There is also a way to secure an invention for one year, by way of a provisional patent application.  A provisional application is much less expensive than either a utility patent application or a design patent application, but a provisional application can never on its own result in an issued patent. If you file a provisional application, you must file a non-provisional application for the same invention within a year or you have wasted the money on the provisional application. Much more on these subjects is available on my web pages at: https://claibornepatent.com/Patent%20process.htm.... Read More

From the USPTO records, you can find out who owns the patent and can contact them directly or you could contact the attorney listed on the face of the patent who represented the patentee. You might want to initial find out if the patent owner would be interested in sell the patent in an anonymous manner, such as through an attorney who is not know as being you intellectual property attorney so that, if there is no interest on the part of the patent owner, the patent owner will not be looking to monitor your company's activity. It is also suggested that, first, you check to see if the patent has not lapse due to failure to pay maintenance fees, and it is also suggested that you have the claims of the patent evaluated to insure that the cover what you want to do.... Read More