| 1 Provisional Patent Application 1 -- How a Provisional Patent Application Works 3 -- Advantages of Filing a Provisional Patent Application 7 -- Potential Disadvantages of Filing a Provisional Application 16 -- Preparing Your Provisional Patent Application 18 -- Drinking Beer and Listening to the Car Radio: Two Provisional Patent Applications 18 -- 2 Deciding Whether to File a Provisional Application: The Seven Hurdles 27 -- Hurdle #1 Is It Commercial? 31 -- Hurdle #2 Did You Invent It? 37 -- Hurdle #3 Do You Own It? 40 -- Hurdle #4 Is It Useful? 43 -- Hurdle #5 Does It Fit in One of the Patent Classes? 44 -- Hurdle #6 Is It New? 48 -- Hurdle #7 Is It Obvious? 49 -- Our Inventor's Patent Hurdles 51 -- 3 Finding Previous Inventions 53 -- Internet Patent-Searching Tips 56 -- Searching the USPTO Website 63 -- How to Read a Patent 76 -- Finding Prior Art That Isn't Currently Patented 83 -- After the Preliminary Search 88 -- 4 Drafting the Provisional Patent Application: Part 1-Drawing Your Invention 93 -- Basic Patent Drafting Principles 96 -- Getting Started 100 -- Tips for Inventors Who Have a Prototype but Can't Draw 103 -- Tips for Inventors Who Don't Have a Prototype and Can't Draw 109 -- Drawings for Software, Business Methods, Electrical Inventions, and Chemical Compounds 112 -- 5 Drafting the Provisional Patent Application: Part 2-Describing Your Invention 119 -- What Do You Call Your Invention? 121 -- What Are the Names and Addresses of the Inventors? 123 -- What Are the Advantages of Your Invention Over the Prior Art? 123 -- What Drawing Figures Have You Included? 125 -- What Are the Components of Your Invention and How Do They Interact? 126 -- How Does the invention Achieve Its Result? 131 -- What Are Alternative Ways That Your Invention Can Achieve Its Result? 132 -- Putting It All Together 133 -- 6 Filing and Beyond 143 -- How to File Your Provisional Patent Application 144 -- Filing a Regular Patent Application 161 -- Marking Your Invention "Patent Pending" 163 -- What Happens If You Modify Your Invention? 163 -- International Rules to Remember 164. |
