Oregon Patents Legal Questions

First - what would you sue her for? You don't own anything. You didn't file a patent or a copyright on the code. You cant sue them for stealing something you don't own. If you could what would be the sense of getting a patent? Anyone could sue anyone else saying that they thought of it first and thus they owned all rights to it. As for the oral agreement, all I can say is that you should have given them a written NDA form that had an attorney fee clause and a liquidated damages clause in it.... Read More

It is your call. The damages that they can get may be statutory and attorney's fees if the downloaded video was copyrighted within 90 days of its publication. If not then they would only be entitled to the actual damages or financial harm that they suffered as a result of your downloading. Which could probably be a few bucks. However, I can tell you that you should go to the US copyright office and review the copyright infringement remedies section.... Read More

If you have someone that wants to purchase your provisional patent it will be up to you to name your price. If you decide to go through with selling your patent, you must make sure that there is a contract providing for you to get royalties from this product. Meaning, every time the Buyer makes money, you make money also. I highly suggest that you have an attorney review any contracts you sign. If you are not able to pay for a patent attorney, then there are legal aid services in your local area that will get you in touch with one for either free or a reduced rate if you qualify.... Read More

The real question is how much money do you want to spend to protect your idea? The more money you spend, the stronger the protection you will get. It is important to note that until you file a provisional or non provisional application the only protection you have is trade-secret protection. Trade-secret protection is a just as strong as a patent and if used properly and sometimes even stronger legal protection. This is because trade secret protection lasts forever as long as you follow proper secrecy procedures. One of them is that you have to keep your invention secret, i.e. do not tell anyone, just like the coca cola formula. Then you wonder, how do I tell investors? The answer is you use a confidentiality contract (NDA). This is contract usually governed by state law. An NDA is fairly inexpensive, but protection with and NDA by itself is weak. First, once the cat is out of the bag, it is impossible to get the cat back in the bag and you have to sue on the contract alone. Second, if the contract not drafted and executed properly it can be weak and the investor will have many contract defenses, basically stealing your idea. The next least expensive way to secure your idea is to file a provisional patent application and get "patent pending" status. The problem with provisional applications are that unless all the information that is in the provisional is claimed in the non-provicional and finally granted, that information is lost if disclosed. Usually the idea in the provisional is very raw, basic and is usually not drafted with completeness. Anything outside of it will be gone. The best and most expensive way is a combination of a non-provisional patent and a trade-secret protected NDA contract. On the patent application you have to disclose your invention as a whole and if properly drafted many alternatives embodiments and very broad claims. Another advantage is that in 18 months you will have a published patent application that you can show you investors to create more interest. The NDA will protect any, collateral know-how not disclosed in the patent application. A happy marriage. One last thing, a lot of investors knowing the liability of un-patented ideas will be reluctant to talk to you.... Read More

How do you know it is not patented? Did you do a professional search? Sometimes professional searches cannot find patent applications since they are secret for 18 months until publication. Taking something from someone is dangerous because you might infringe, and probably will get sued when the patent application matures. Unfortunately, you can not patent something you did not invent. If in fact it is not patented and you "figured it out" how to make it, you can sell it and even profit from it, as long as you do not use its trademark name. A quick lesson, in order for an invention to be patentable you need the following: 1. that the invention be novel. New. Not known or used in the USA 1 year before filing the U.S. application. 2. that no one has a patent on the invention anywhere in the world. 3. that no one has sold the invention, or offered to sell, more than 1 year before filing the U.S. application. 4. that the invention not to be obvious (a non trivial change) 5. that you are the inventor who conceives at least one claim in the patent Trade secrets: if the there is no patent, then there might be trade secrets. You are allowed (and in fact encouraged) by the law to do two things: First, if not patented, or covered by trade secret, to reverse-engineer, this means you can go to a chemical lab and find out the composition or "figure it out." Second, if the composition is in fact patented, you can design around it. Therefore, to be in the safe side, you can always improve on the product, find out how it works, make it better (a non trivial change), and then apply for your own patent. Become a competitor with a different or improved composition. I think your issue is going to be for the improvement to be inventive enough (non trivial) worthy of a patent.... Read More

I am assuming that you a "provisional" patent when you say "a pending patent". The reason to apply for a provisional patent is that during this year someone may see the device on YOU TUBE, modify and improve it slightly, and then apply for their own patent on it. All this occurring before you can get an investor and file your own patent. Besides who would be foolish enough to pay you any money for anything you display on YOU TUBE if you don't have any pending rights to it? Lets be clear - without a patent you don't own anything. When was the last time someone gave you money for nothing? If you don't have enough money to file for your own patent how are you going to have enough money to launch a lawsuit against someone who "steals" your invention? People who blatantly "steal" other peoples ideas and profit from them generally are a lot more savvy than you give them credit for, and generally have money. (Besides its not legally stealing because you don't own anything to steal.) What would you do if someone in China saw this great invention, make millions of them, and shipped them to the US where it was distributed for sales throughout the country before you got the investor and filed the patent and got the patent allowed. What exactly would you do? They have done nothing wrong at this point and in all reality probably ruined your sales market. The only thing left to do at this point would be to cry in your spilt milk and wish you would have called your patent attorney initially.... Read More

Why would they owe you anything? Do you have a patent on your invention? If not you don't own anything. Did you send it to them with a written agreement that they would not use it without your permission or that they would pay you for it if they liked it, or did you just send it to them as a suggestion? Without a signed contract you have nothing. Best thing to do is to apply for a patent on the invention if it has been less than a year since you disclosed the idea to them. Remember only the true inventor can file for a patent. If you get the patent granted then you can sue them for infringement.... Read More

In all honesty everyone wants a patent for free probably of the potential clients I meet want me to write a patent for them and then they will give me a percentage of their profits from their invention later. Most don't have a clue about how to make, market or sell their invention. Studies show less than 1% of all patents make any money. The reason is not because the ideas are not good the reason is because it takes time, money, knowledge and experience to take an idea from paper and turn it into a money making venture. Very, very few of the inventors I have dealt with can do this. Good luck in finding a patent attorney that will work for free.... Read More

First unless you are a patent lawyer it is very doubtful that you know if your product infringes. Generally this cant be decided until there has been a claim construction hearing. Second I cant possibly tell you if what you want to do is infringing or not based on the small fact pattern. But if you are asking me if you can send out instructions or sell the a kit in parts etc that you think infringes - the answer is NO. There are two types of infringement - direct or indirect. Under indirect there is inducement and contributory infringement. Under direct infringement there is literal infringement.... Read More

Patents, trademarks, and copyrights protect very different types of intellectual property. A patent attorney can help you understand this distinction better. Briefly, trademarks protect the name/logo/design used in connection with the sale of goods or services. Quoting from the US Copyright website, copyrights protect ". . . original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed." This is an important distinction. Trademarks or copyrights will not protect an invention. So doing a search for trademarks, or a search for copyrights, will not be of much help in determining whether an invention can be protected. For inventions, there are patents. Retaining a patent attorney for advice and assistance as soon as possible is critical so as not to lose important rights to an invention. A patent attorney can help with a prior art search, and help interpret the results of the prior art search to determine whether an invention might be something that can be protected with a patent. A patent attorney can also explain what to do and what not to do to maintain rights in an invention.... Read More

If your idea was truly stolen, yes you could have a case. Unfortunately, that does not seem like that is what happened to you. It seems like you hired and trusted a non-attorney (ie. an Invention Submission Company) to give you legal advice. As a result you only filed for a design patent, when it might have been better and advisable to file for a utility patent. If you elected not to fully protect your idea/invention then an argument could be made that you donated your idea to the public. However, if the Invention Submission Company is the huge company that stole your idea then you might have a case. Alternatively, if the huge company independently invention the same or similar invention you would not have any claim.... Read More

You can stop selling it. Or, you can check with the USPTO to see if their mark is trademarked. If it is, is there a likelihood of confusion between your product and theirs? Are they willing to accept a royalty under a licensing agreement (or are you willing to pay one)? Is the trademark vulnerable to being canceled? These are all things to consider, and of course, litigation costs money and time.... Read More