[rollei_list] Re: OT - "Praise don't pay the bills" (was: "NIH Syndrome" (was: Liquid Lenses))
- From: "Austin Franklin" <austin@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 10:57:49 -0500
Ardeshir,
I have been in the "patent" business for nearly three decades. I do not
find your claims credible.
Austin
> -----Original Message-----
> From: rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Ardeshir Mehta
> Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2005 9:55 AM
> To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [rollei_list] Re: OT - "Praise don't pay the bills" (was: "NIH
> Syndrome" (was: Liquid Lenses))
>
>
>
>
> Austin,
>
> I have registered my ideas with the US patent Office in Washington
> many, many times - over two dozen times, if memory serves. In the past
> - that was more than ten years ago - it used to cost me just $10, plus
> enough US postage for them to mail back one copy of whatever it was
> that I sent them. It never cost me anywhere near $200. All it takes is
> a write-up of the idea - it doesn't have to be a patent application,
> provisional or otherwise: it can even be crude drawings or a rough
> concept - in two copies, and they send back one of the copies with a
> date and an official stamp on it, proving that on that date the idea
> had been thought of by the sender. They don't bother to actually read
> it, of course: they just file it away for two years, and then destroy
> it. However, if the sender keeps the copy which they send back, he or
> she can produce it at any time as proof that whatever is written in
> that paper is a description of his/her concept on the stamped date. If
> anyone can prove that they thought of the same thing before that date,
> then he/she is out of luck. But if they can't, then he/she is clearly
> proven to be the first person to think of the idea. I have many such
> copies in my files, with the US Patent Office stamp on them, plus the
> date. Of course I try to write up the paper in as accurate and
> foolproof a way as I can: more or less like a patent application
> without the claims, so that it covers all the bases (or more correctly,
> all the bases I can think of). But the date and the US Patent Office
> stamp on the paper are sufficient to prove in any court of law that on
> that date at least, it was I who thought of the idea described therein.
>
> Perhaps they don't offer this service any more. But if so, that's news
> to me, because as I said, I have done it personally, and that too many
> times, in the past.
>
> Cheers.
>
>
> +++++
>
>
> On Monday, January 24, 2005, at 11:56 PM, Austin Franklin wrote:
>
> > Ardeshir,
> >
> >> REGISTERING the idea, however, with the Patent Office, with two
> >> copies of your paper outlining the idea - or better still, your
> >> patent application (*sans* claims), if you can write it - sent to
> >> them by you, and a stamped and dated copy sent back to you by them,
> >> is a good idea.
> >
> > There is no such thing as "registering" an "idea". What you can do is
> > file a "provisional application", which does not have to include a
> > formal patent claim, oath or declaration, or any information
> > disclosure (prior art) statement. After you file the provisional
> > application, you only have 12 months to submit your actual patent
> > application.
> >
> > You also don't patent an "idea", you patent an implementation. A
> > provisional patent application must include a written description of
> > the invention (implementation), and any drawings necessary to
> > understand the invention (implementation). Not simply a description of
> > some "idea".
> >
> >> It costs only $10 or so, and you have an official and unimpeachable
> >> record of a date at which the idea was thought of.
> >
> > Filing a provisional application is $200 minimum. I don't know where
> > you got $10 from.
> >
> > Austin
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