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[bw5then]

I do not know exactly where to start.I live in South Mississippi and there are NO Patent Attorneys anywhere close.I am starting a business that will make specific marking tags for a specific industry.I presently work in this industry for 17 years now.There are different kinds of tags in this industry (but none have ever been that good or lasted more than a couple of years).My idea is a completely different material(will be permanent and not fade),design and concept.Ultimately they are all still marking tags.Can I still patent it.I have not been able to find anything else like it and it will solve a problem that we in this industry have been constantly trying to find new ideas to correct.

[blakesq]

this lists all the patent attorneys in MS, i saw one in gulfport. 

https://oedci.uspto.gov/OEDCI/geoRegion.do?region=MISSISSIPPI&regionID=MS

[BobRoberts]

Hi bw5then,

"I am starting a business that will make specific marking tags for a specific industry.I presently work in this industry for 17 years now."
It's unclear whether you are self-employed, or work for another.  In case of the later,  I would start out by exploring ownership of any potential invention.

 Generally, an invention belongs to the inventor unless that right is signed-over.  One way ownership of an invention can be signed-over is as part of a contract for employment (or a stand-alone contract), indicating that Patents (or other Intellectual Property) is owned by the employer.  Even if not signed-over, an employer might have 'shop-rights' to an invention.  Both of these really depend on your specifics, including how much of your employers resources were used in creating the invention, when the invention was created (i.e., during work hours or at home), and the proximity of the invention to your employer's business and/or your job duties).

Re: patentability, it really depends on the specifics (which you really shouldn't give here).  A new use for an existing item could be  patentable, if novel, and not obvious (obviousness is arather cloudy concept that couldn't be completly explained in a thousand pages).

Good luck.

[MYK]

this lists all the patent attorneys in MS, i saw one in gulfport. 

https://oedci.uspto.gov/OEDCI/geoRegion.do?region=MISSISSIPPI&regionID=MS

Wow.  There are only 26 patent attorneys/agents in the whole state of Mississippi?  That really is pretty low.

Hmmm.  For some reason, the movie title "Mars Needs Women" comes to mind.

ETA: Holy ****.  Microsoft -- JUST Microsoft alone -- has fifty-eight (58) in-house patent attorneys in Washington state.  Maybe more elsewhere, too.  What are they trying to do, take over the world?!?!

[JimIvey]

ETA: Holy ****.  Microsoft -- JUST Microsoft alone -- has fifty-eight (58) in-house patent attorneys in Washington state.  Maybe more elsewhere, too.  What are they trying to do, take over the world?!?!

Several years ago, they announced an intention of filing 3,000 applications in a year after they filed over 2,000 the year before.  Given an average pendency of 5 years for software innovations and assuming a modest 2,000 applications per year, you're looking at managing 10,000 applications and probably as many or several times as many foreign applications.  And, don't forget maintenance fees for issued patents and litigation and licensing support.

So, that's about 200 actively prosecuted applications per attorney -- not exactly an unusually light workload.

As for taking over the world, I'm not sure how patent attorneys are useful for that.  Several years ago, I had a client who wanted to file in Iraq.  They didn't have a functioning government, let alone a functioning patent office.

Regards.