Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Robertstacy]

My partners and I were in the process of creating a service.  Without getting into details, this service includes having members subscribe, the members receive a membership card with an ID.  Members can present this card to prospective clients to obtain secure information about the member.  
We recently found that someone in California is in the process of launching a similar service.  I see that they have the usual trademarks protecting their logos and branding but can they patent the actual process.  Would we be able to offer this same service under our own naming?

[CriterionD]

Can they patent the process?  Its hypothetically possible, as long as the process is novel and "non obvious" and they are the original inventor.  Could you patent the process?  Again, hypothetically possible.  Might somebody else have patented the process?  Yet again, hypothetically possible.  

Could you offer the same service under your own name?  It depends largely on whether they or somebody else has and/or will obtain and/or can obtain patent protection on the process (or parts of it).  

Hypothetically there could also be trademark issues depending on your name and its similarity to their name.

Basically, without going into detail - which you wouldn't necessarily want to do here - there aren't any really good answers.

[DJoshEsq]

Remember that only the first inventor can obtain patent protection.  If this company (or individuals) invented before you, then you cannot obtain a patent.  

If you will be investing a substantial amount of money into this endeavor, I would recommend obtaining a right to use search or an infringement search.  

[Robertstacy]

How can I go about finding out if this company has obtained patent protection on their process?

[CriterionD]

How can I go about finding out if this company has obtained patent protection on their process?

You want to obtain or conduct a patent search.  You can contract one, or you can conduct one yourself via sites like www.uspto.gov or www.freepatentsonline.com (but conduct a good one, put in the time to learn recommended searching procedures).  It is easy to search for patents assigned to a specific company or applied for by a specific applicant - so thats a recommended first step here if you are initially just interested in whether this other company has applied for a patent.

If you have any questions regarding the search process, feel free to contact me via PM or what not (or ask them in the thread if you desire).  Also, note that it can take almost three years at times for a patent app to be published, so it is generally impossible to say with certainty whether this other company has applied for patent protection.

[Robertstacy]

Roughly, what can I expect to pay to have a patent search done?

[CriterionD]

Roughly, what can I expect to pay to have a patent search done?

My firm offers high quality, thorough searches generally ranging between $500-$1000 before any applicabale discounts (as detailed on the site).  I'd say thats about average for a decent search. You could expect to pay a little bit more through some firms, especially if an opinion is included.  

We also offer a "preliminary" search for only $50, its not a full fledge patent search, but has the potential to save some clients good time and money.  Its a viable alternative to conducting your own preliminary searching, or to using another lower quality firm.  Its nothing we make money on, is more of a promotional service.  It exists because, well, in the experience of a patent searcher - at least in my own - an inventor comes to you with an invention and they are sure nothing else like it exists, and, well, it doesn't always take more than fifteen minutes to show them wrong.  While other clients may stand to benefit from the service as well, that particular client is largely why the service exists.

There are many cheap firms advertising on the net.  Some of these firms simply copy and paste your provided description of your invention into complex patent search software which spits out automated patent search results (and maybe they manually refine the results later).  Other cheap firms are a little better than that.  But realize that a patent attorney/agent incurs a certain degree of liability when writing a patentability opinion, and the more thorough the search the more work involved in determining an opinion.  Which is why I advise in general to at least be skeptical when a firm advertises a cheap search including a written opinion.

And again, you can always conduct your own search - in that case you are spending nothing but your own time.