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U.S. Patent Office
The U.S. Patent office is tasked with carefully reviewing patent application in order to determine the invention's patentability. The examination process usually takes 12 to 18 months. The U.S. Patent Office will not tell you if your invention has already been invented by someone else unless you apply for a patent. The U.S. Patent Office examiners only verify that the description and claims per description by their inventors are new, unique, and not obvious to the U.S. Patent Office. They could not make confirmation with regards to the usefulness or profitability of the invention.
Before applying for a patent, inventors can make a search of patents already granted, text books, journals and other publications to be sure that someone else has not already invented their idea. They may hire someone to do it for them or may do the search themselves at the Public Search Room of the U.S. Patent Office in Arlington, Virginia, on the PTO web page on the Internet, or at one of the Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries across the country.
There are several requirements for an invention to be patentable, which are: (1) useful, (2) novel, and (3) non-obvious. The novelty requirement of U.S. Patent office is often consider the entry test for patentability. When the U.S. Patent office examiner has made his/her initial patentability determination, the U.S. Patent office responds by sending the applicant what is known as an "Office Action" containing its determination and the reasons for it. If the Office Action contains a rejection of the claims which happens to 80% of the patent application and there exist arguable grounds for contesting the examiner's determination, one typically files a "Response," usually in the form of an Amendment, to overcome the rejection. There are usually only two Office Actions and Responses before a final determination is made by the U.S. Patent office examiner as to the invention's patentability. If this determination is detrimental to the applicant's interests, it can be appealed - a time consuming and expensive process. Typical legal fees that apply for responding to Office Actions are $500.00 to $3,000.00, depending upon the complexity of the arguments.
The patent cost can be very high for some people although fees for the patent application, issue and maintenance fees and other related fees are reduced by 50 percent when the applicant is a small business or individual inventor. The U.S. Patent office charges a minimum of about $4,000 over the life of the patent.
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