FULTON
JEANG
PLLC

Q: What is a patent?
A: A patent is a government granted monopoly that lets you stop others from making, using, selling, offering to sell, or importing your invention in the United States. It is a right to exclude others — not a right to practice your own invention, which may still require clearance from earlier patents. In other words, you can have a patent on your invention, but you may still infringe someone else's patent if you sell your invention. In exchange for the monopoly, your patent provides a description on how the invention works.

 

Q: Why should I patent my invention?

A: A patent turns an invention in your mind into a more tangible business asset you can own, license, sell, or use to keep competitors out of your market. For startup companies, this could be crucial. Investors and acquirers treat patents (or patent-pending) as evidence that your core technology is defensible rather than easily copied and stolen, and IP is a standard line item in due diligence. A patent gives you leverage — the ability to license for revenue, to negotiate from strength if a larger competitor moves into your space, and to respond if someone asserts a patent against you. And a granted patent lets you market, publish, and pitch openly without depending on secrecy the way a trade secret does.

​

Q: How is a patent different from a trademark, copyright, or trade secret?
A: A patent protects how something works or is built. A trademark protects the brand names and logos that identify the source of your goods or services. A copyright protects original creative expression, such as code, text, and images. A trade secret protects commercially valuable information that you keep confidential, such as a formula or customer list — it lasts as long as secrecy does, but offers no protection against independent development or reverse engineering.

​

Q: What kinds of patents are there?
A: Utility patents cover how an invention functions — machines, processes, compositions of matter, and improvements on them. Design patents cover the ornamental appearance of a product rather than its function. Plant patents cover new asexually reproduced plant varieties. Many products benefit from both a utility and a design patent.

​

Q: What can't be patented?
A: Abstract ideas, laws of nature, natural phenomena, and mathematical formulas are not patentable by themselves. Pure business methods and software can be difficult — they generally need to be framed as a concrete technical improvement rather than a familiar practice performed on a generic computer. An idea alone is also not enough: the invention must be described in enough detail that a skilled person could build and use it by reading the patent.

​

Q: Is my invention patentable?
A: Three requirements drive most of the patentability analysis. The invention must be new (not already disclosed anywhere in the world), non-obvious (not a predictable combination of what already exists), and useful. Novelty is measured against everything publicly available before your filing date, including foreign patents, academic papers, product manuals, and your own prior public disclosures.

​

Q: What is the difference between a provisional and a non-provisional application?
A: A provisional application is a lower-cost placeholder that secures a filing date, application number, and lets you use the term "patent pending." It is never examined and never becomes a patent on its own. It's like a foot in the door at the patent office. You have 12 months to file a non-provisional (or international) application claiming the benefit of the provisional application. This deadline cannot be missed. A non-provisional is the full application that will be examined and hopefully matures into a patent grant.

​

Q: Do I need to file a patent application before I show my invention to investors or customers?
A: Ideally, yes. The United States allows a one-year grace period for public disclosures, but most other countries do not — a single public disclosure, sale, offer for sale, or demo before filing can permanently destroy your foreign patent rights. If you must disclose before filing a patent application, use a written non-disclosure agreement (NDA), and treat filing as the safer path when international protection matters. However, an NDA cannot cure public disclosure in the form of an offer for sale.

​

Q: What does "patent pending" mean?
A: It means an application has been filed and is on file with the USPTO. It does not give you the right to sue anyone yet, but it puts competitors on notice and can support damages later in limited circumstances. Marking a product as patent pending when no application is on file carries statutory penalties.

 

Q: What happens after I file the non-provisional application?

A: The USPTO issues a filing receipt, checks the application for formal requirements, and assigns it to an examiner in the relevant technology group, where it waits its turn. Your application is published about 18 months after the earliest priority date unless you file a non-publication request. The examiner then issues a written office action — most applications receive at least one rejection, which is a normal part of the negotiation process (called patent prosecution) rather than a final denial — and the inventor must respond to the issues raised in the office action. A majority of patent applications will initially have all of the claims rejected during this process. Hopefully eventually the examiner will agree that the claims are allowable, and the issue fee is due to obtain a patent grant. There are much more procedural and substantive intricacies during the prosecution process that inventors are best assisted by experienced patent attorneys. Patent maintenance fees will be due at 3.5, 7.5, and 11.5 years after the issue date.

​

Q: How much does it cost to get a patent?
A: Costs include government fees, attorney fees, and patent drawing fees. Attorney fees for preparing and prosecuting a utility application vary with the technology's complexity. We typically charge a flat fee for preparing and filing a provisional patent application. We generally provide a cost estimate before starting work.

​

Q: How long does it take?
A: Expect roughly a year and a half to two years before an examiner issues a first substantive office action, and often two to four years total from filing to grant. The USPTO's Track One prioritized examination program can compress that to about twelve months for an additional fee. Design patents generally move faster than utility patents.

​

Q: How long does a patent last?
A: A utility patent generally lasts 20 years from the filing date of the non-provisional application, subject to adjustments for USPTO delay. Maintenance fees are due at 3.5, 7.5, and 11.5 years after grant, and the patent expires early if they go unpaid. Design patents filed on or after May 13, 2015 last 15 years from grant with no maintenance fees.

 

Q: Who owns a patent — me or my company?
A: By default, inventors own the invention, even when it is created at work. Companies should secure ownership through written assignment agreements for each patent application. Companies should always have written employment and contractor agreements at the time of hiring that clearly specify that the company owns inventions and innovations. Independent contractors are a common gap: absent a written agreement, the contractor — not the hiring company — may own what they invent or create.

 

Q: Should I do a patent search first?
A: A search is not required, but it is usually worth the modest cost. It helps you gauge whether the invention is likely patentable, shapes how the claims are drafted, and can save you from investing in an application with little chance of allowance. No search is exhaustive, since pending applications stay unpublished for 18 months.

 

Q: Does a U.S. patent protect me overseas?
A: No. Patents are territorial, so protection must be sought country by country. A Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application preserves your options in most major markets for up to 30 months from your earliest priority date, giving you time to decide where filing is commercially justified before national fees come due.

 

Q: Do I need a patent attorney?
A: An inventor can prepare and file their patent application on their own, but patent drafting is a technical legal discipline, and claim language written too narrowly or too broadly is often impossible to fix after filing. Only patent attorneys and patent agents with technical or scientific expertise registered with the USPTO may represent applicants before the Office. If you would like to discuss your invention, contact us to schedule a consultation. Email us at info@fultonjeang.com.