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How To Patent An Invention – Free Help for Inventors

A friend of mine told me he wants to know how to patent an invention and where he could get a boiler plate form to protect an invention.

Well… I really don’t recommend a do-it-yourself patent to protect an invention.

In theory it’s certainly possible to file your own patent application; I’m sure the forms are available on the USPTO website.

However, if your idea is worth getting a patent for then the last thing you want to do is to file your own patent application.

A good patent can be worth many millions of dollars, Look at Lego. They had a rock solid patent, and as soon as it expired the market was inundated with similar products, but it was too late… Lego had built up a successful business and brand and will do just fine.

On the other hand a patent can be a waste of money. Take a look at hot water demand system patents. There is the Metlund system which is patented, the RedyTemp which can be run in demand mode, and the Chilieppper, all of which do the exact same thing.

The Chilipepper is the only one that isn’t patented, and yet it does not infringe the Metlund or RedyTemp patents. They are very weak patents, and there wasn’t anything new and different about the Chilipepper to patent.

It doesn’t seem to have made a difference. But then there were already demand systems on the market. It’s when you have no competition or your product has some significant improvement over your competition that a patent becomes important.

Very few patents ever result in a product in the marketplace. There are plenty of reasons for this including poor marketing, the inability to manufacture at a reasonable cost, and as if often the case, lack of demand for the product.

So let’s assume that your great new idea is worth getting a patent. If you are going to go through the process of obtaining a patent you might as well do it right. Unless you are a patent attorney I don’t think you can.

Let’s begin with the patent search.

When you apply for a patent to the USPTO they will do a world-wide patent search. If you search only the US patent database there is a very good chance your patent will be denied due to a patent filed in a foreign country. It has happened to me.

But even searching the US database is a daunting task. Professional patent examiners use what the patent office calls a classification system. If you don’t pick the right class for your search you might as well not do the search because you will not uncover those critical patents.

I don’t fully understand the classification system, and I have no desire to become as proficient at doing patent searches as a professional searcher, but I do want good results. Nowadays a patent search done by your patent attorney, whom he subs out to a professional searcher, will cost around $500. Its money well spent.

Not only do the patent search results alert you to existing patents that can be in the way of your obtaining a patent, it can also suggest interesting new ways for you to look at your idea and improve it.

In the United States it’s not the first one to file a patent that counts, it’s the first person to think of an idea. That means that even if someone else gets a patent, if you can prove you thought of the idea first and can document that you followed the other conditions that apply, the other persons patent will be deemed invalid you will get awarded the patent.

One of the first things you should do is document your idea in a way that it could be used as good solid evidence in a court of law if it should ever come to that. One good way is to write down your idea as clearly as possible and with diagrams if needed, and then have it signed and dated by several witnesses.

Doing a patent search is another effective method, although it will be a later date than when you thought of the idea unless you live next door to a patent attorney.

If you go for a year without doing anything about your idea the patent office will consider the idea abandoned and you loose your thought of date. So again, have evidence that would hold up in a courtroom showing that you never let an entire year pass by without working on your new invention. Keep receipts and notes and whatever you need to clearly show that you never abandoned your invention.

If your idea is relatively new and un-tested, you might want to do some prototyping and developing before deciding if it is worth pursuing a patent. Quite often one discovers more patentable features once one begins developing and prototyping his new invention.

This was or is the case with my most recent invention for hot water demand systems. We know it will work, but cash flow doesn’t really allow us to develop it fully quite yet. As soon as I came up with the idea, we had our patent attorneys a patent search establishing the rough date that it was thought of.

We then filed for a “provisional patent”, which allows you to make changes to the patent language after you do some development work. This typically leads to a much better patent since so much unexpected stuff often shows up after the development process begins. That’s the upside to a provisional patent, the down side being the patent as with all patents only lasts 20 years. If you wait until after the development to file a patent application your 20 years will last longer.

That would only worry me if I thought the development time would be a number of years, which I suppose is often the case with some of the high-tech inventions being developed by big companies.

So my advice is to first figure out if you really need a patent, then do a patent search, and finally file for a provisional patent. And most importantly get a good patent attorney. These days I think a utility patent for a fairly simple idea runs around $4,000 - $5,000 but can be much more for complex high-tech invention ideas.

In my experience it generally takes 2 or 3 years to get a patent with a few battles with the patent examiners. This spreads the cost of the patent out over the several years, depending on the arrangements you make with your patent attorney.

A previous invention article – Simple Machine Inventions

A Nifty New Invention - Reverse Osmosis Water Purification That Doesn’t Waste Water!

A reverse osmosis system that doesn't waste water?

Traditionally reverse osmosis water purification systems waste a tremendous amount of water during the purification process, typically 3 to 25 gallons of waste water for every gallon of clean water produced.

Obviously this is not very good for water conservation. But Watts has invented a way of recycling the contaminated waste water, eliminating the water normally wasted. They just pump it into the water heater.

Watts Premier "Zero Waste" ZRO-4 Reverse Osmosis System

The Watts website claims their patented ZRO-4 Reverse Osmosis System is the first ever that does not waste water. Instead of running the contaminated waste water down the drain like other RO systems, the zero waste system pumps the contaminated water into the water heater. Typically one doesn't drink hot water, and bathing washing and cleaning with it should be fine.

The instruction manual states that the ZRO-4 RO system needs to be located at least 25 feet from the water heater. I wonder why. What would happen if the RO system is closer to the water heater than 25 feet? If anyone knows why this is a requirement please let me know! What about tankless water heaters?

To me this is a brilliant idea for an invention. It's simple, inexpensive and saves a ton of water. Probably has a very solid patent that would be difficult to get around, although I haven't really studied the patents. They are easy enough to find on Google's patent search.

The level of contamination of the waste water isn't very high, and should not pose a problem unless you regularly consume hot water, something that is fairly easy to avoid.

The Watts ZRO-4 reverse osmosis system reduces Arsenic (V), Cysts, Cyrptosporidium, Giardia, Entamoeba and/or Toxoplasm, Barium, Hexavalent, Chromium, Trivalent Chromium, Copper, Lead, Fluoride, Cadmium, Radium 226/228, Selenium, TDS, and Turbidity. It also has filters since RO systems can't get every nasty out of the water.

There are some potential problems with operating the system with hot water demand systems and some hot water recirculating systems. Since the RO system connects to both the hot and cold water lines, any other equipment that also connects to both the hot and cold water lines present opportunities for problems.

Hot water circulating and hot water demand systems that pump water from the water heater to purge the cooled off hot water in the pipes, or that circulate warm water for instant hot water purposes can cause water to flow through the RO unit just as though the RO pump is running.

The flow of water though the RO system resulting from the operation of the recirc pump may increase the delivery time for hot water to reach the fixtures. With the warm water circulating systems and with the hot water demand type systems the cold water piping can end up full of contaminated waste water.

Watts also has a retrofit version of it's zero waste system which allows you to convert your existing system to a no waste system. The retro-fit system includes a solenoid valve in series with the pump used for pumping the contaminated water into the water heater.

I don’t know if a demand pump would cause water to flow through the solenoid valve backwards or not because I haven't had an opportunity to test one, but it might be a viable solution for using both the ZRO-4 and a hot water circulating or demand system...but someone needs to test it to be sure.

Overall, a great new invention at least in my opinion for what its worth.

Inventors Notes – Switching Electronic Air Pressure Regulation

My Asparagus harvester invention utilizes pneumatic cylinders to cut the individual spears, and the stroke length has to right on the money every time. If the pressure goes up the stroke length becomes longer, and if the pressure goes down the stroke length shortens.

Too much pressure and the piston rod will bottom out against the front cylinder head, and not enough pressure will reduce the stroke length an cause the blade to not cut all the way through the spear or even not reaching the spear at all. Allowing the piston to bottom out against the front head will eventually damage the cylinder.

The asparagus harvester has 14 air cylinders mounted on the header arranged across the asparagus bed. Each piston rod is equipped with a sharp blade with a slight bit of overlap with the blades next to it. The cylinders are angled down toward the ground and when they extend the blade severs the spear slightly below ground level requiring a stroke length of about 20 inches. Typically the extension stroke takes around 35 to 40 milliseconds.

An optical detection system locates the spears and sends a signal to open the air valve for the cylinder corresponding to the co-ordinates of the spear to be cut. The harvester is moving forward at between 20 and 30 inches per second, and so the blades must cut the spear and get back up out of the way of any spears that are not quite tall enough to harvest.

Asparagus spears emerge from the bed in a random pattern with random heights. At any moment during harvesting there may be as many as 5 or 6 cylinders operating at the same time, or none at all. You might have 10 feet with nary a spear, and 18 spears in the next 24 inches.

Because these cylinders are very fast acting they require high flow rates at a constant stable air pressure. While stroking, the cylinder will be consuming around 165 cubic feet per minute of air. Six cylinders operating at once would require a whopping 990 cubic feet per minute.

With such large swings in flow and rapidly varying air consumption the mechanical air regulator will have a significant variation in the pressure drop, which will have a detrimental affect on the stroke length of the cylinders.

We can, however, use another approach to regulating the air pressure. We can use a switching electronic air pressure regulation scheme. With this approach we replace the mechanical pressure regulator with an on or off electric air valve with a high flow rate.

We can then use an accurate analog pressure transducer to open the valve whenever the pressure drops below the set point, and shut off when the pressure is at or above the set point.

The valve has a very low pressure drop unlike the mechanical regulator. The valve can handle the flow required by multiple cylinders without the air pressure drooping that the mechanical regulators end up with.

There will be small pressure spikes or what is known in electronics as a ripple in the pressure. By properly sizing the manifold I can filter out the small pressure ripples.

For more details about electronic switching air pressure regluation for the asparagus harvester

Inventing a Selective Asparagus Harvester

For the last week or so I have been trying to do some life cycle testing on the pneumatic cylinders that we are going to use for the next asparagus harvesting machine we build. The cylinders should be able to do about a million strokes before the need to be replaced.

The machine has a row of pneumatic cylinders, or often referred to as air cylinders, arrayed across the asparagus bed. As the machine moves forward a sensing system locates the spears and tells the air cylinder lined up with the spear when to cut.

The cut signal causes the piston rod to extend from the cylinder at high speed with about 18 inches of stroke. It takes less than a tenth of a second for the cylinder to extend to full stroke. On the end of the piston rod is mounted a blade that cuts the spear.

I set up a fixture out in my garage for testing the cylinder. I’ve got it mounted to a frame similar to how it will be mounted on the asparagus harvester, pointed down at the ground at around 45 degrees.

I filled an asparagus crate or lug box, lined with plastic, full of dirt from the back yard. I placed the crate of dirt so that when the cylinder is extended the blade goes about two inches deep into the soil.

I actually went to the grocery store and bought a bunch of asparagus to test the cutting ability of my blades. I wanted to see if I could detect a difference between a blade with a V notch in it, a slanted edge like a guillotine, and an arrowhead type blade.

I tamped the soil down till it was nice and firm, and then used a dowel to make a hole just big enough to get an asparagus spear into. Then I pushed a spear into the hole and tamped the dirt down around it. I lined up three spears so the blade would contact the first spear while in mid-air, the second spear right at ground level, and the third spear would have the cut line about an inch below ground.

I tried this with all three blade types, and I could find no difference at all in the cutting ability or anything else. The blades sliced through all three spears like they were made of butter. There was no deflection or twisting of the blade, so my new secret method of preventing blade rotation seems to work well.

Since revealing details about an invention online would compromise my patent rights I can’t go into details about the new method I am using to prevent the blades from rotating out of position.

I would like to do the life testing at 150 psi, but my compressor only goes between 120 psi and 135psi as it cycles. So I set the air pressure for the testing at 120 psi.

I’m interested in the life of the seals, and whether the piston rod ends up breaking due to metal fatigue. The load placed on the end of the piston rod by the blade and guiding assembly is offset from the center of the piston rod.

On the down stroke the pneumatic valve reverses the direction of the air to the cylinder before the cylinder reaches the physical end of its stroke to prevent damaging the cylinder. On the return stroke the piston hits the rod end of a smaller cylinder screwed into the rear head of the cutting cylinder to act as a spring and absorb the shock loads.

My compressor can just barely keep up with the cylinder if I fire the cylinder every 20 seconds. It’s going to take a long time to get anywhere near a million strokes. I need a much bigger compressor.

To cycle the cylinder I used a 12f675 micro controller chip, an 8 pin chip with a microprocessor, memory, and various interface modules like analog to digital converters, comparators, and counters all included. Even an accurate clock is built in. Learning to program and use these microcontroller chips should be in every inventor’s toolbox.

I programmed the chip using a basic language. I used a breadboard, a couple of pots and a voltage regulator etc along with the chip to create an automatic cycling controller. It has two pots. One pot controls the time between firings and the other determines the length of the pulse sent to the air valve. The longer the pulse the longer the stroke produced by the air cylinder.

I’ve tested a whole lot of air cylinders with this method and I’ve yet to find one that would even go 10,000 cycles without developing a problem. I think this time I’ve got an air cylinder that will hold up for that million strokes I need.

These new cylinders I’m using have a 1” diameter bore. The cylinders I’ve used previous had a 1-1/2 inch bore. There is a big difference. The smaller surface area of the piston means the force is much smaller. The acceleration is determined by the force, and the new cylinder is much more sensitive to variations in pressure. That is something that the asparagus harvester invention will have to address.

In a future article I will describe in some detail the pressure problems and the special electronic air pressure regulation system I intend to use for the machine.

To learn more about my selective asparagus harvester invention visit: Selective Asparagus Harvester

Future Million Dollar Inventions and Ideas

Want to invent that million dollar invention or idea and be set for life? It’s not terribly likely that you can do such a thing, but it’s not out of the question either.

History is full of individuals who achieved great wealth with a new invention or a new idea. Ray Crock who franchised Mc Donald’s, Steve Jobs and Apple computer, Bill Gates and his operating system, snugglies, spanks, and someone is even making a fortune because he came up with the idea of slip on cardboard coffee cup holders so you don’t burn your fingers while holding that paper cup latte.

Here are the areas where I think the small individual inventor or innovator has the best chance of coming up with that revolutionary device or idea that will make him or her independently wealthy.

Harvesting Machines for Fruits and Vegetables

Very few fruits and vegetables are harvested by machine. There are tomato harvesters and potato harvesters but not much else for fruits and vegetables. If someone can com up with a harvester for apples or oranges or similar fruit the will make a huge killing. It will truly be a million dollar invention.

Other crops that are exclusively hand harvested are asparagus, all kinds of citrus, squash, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and man others. I’ve almost got an asparagus harvester working, you can see my latest version at my asparagus harvester website.

Energy Production

Obviously energy is always going to be needed and with oil eventually running out there are many new competing technologies for generating electricity. Opportunities abound with areas such as wind power, ocean wave power, solar cells, biofuels, and more. Figure out a way to generate electricity that costs less than generating electricity with oil or gas and you have a winner.

A Better Razor

Just image how much money you can make selling razors. Nearly every man and woman in the US and many other parts of the world shaves. How about a new kind of razor that you could use to get a comfortable and close shave with just plain water? Even better would be a razor like the above that needs a new blade every week. You could have millions and millions of customers purchasing replacement blades weekly or monthly.

The Internet

First there was America Online, soon there was ebay, craigs list, facebook, twitter, and god knows how many other social networking and other online methods of making money. All of the previous mentioned items started out as an idea. You can have ideas too. Come up with a great online game that everyone wants to play. My wife is currently addicted to a farming game on facebook I think. Find some new way of helping the masses communicate with each other is another idea, and one will probably emerge this year in my opinion. Flex your creativity and come up with the next big thing on the internet.

Geriatric Products

Anything that helps older people get along as they grow old should be big. Soon the baby boomers will all be old, so find a way to make life easier for them. This could involve the internet and some sort of social media thing too. Interesting areas for new devices include things that make bathing easier, taking medications and keeping track of medications, exercise equipment, sleeping aids, and all sorts of other convenience items.

Cooking and Food Preparation

Everybody eats and they eat every day. Come up with some food preparation or cooking device that makes preparing or cooking food easier and then sell it on those infomercials. There is a lot of money in it, just come up with something simple and clever that makes a kitchen chore easier or quicker.

Water and Energy Conservation

As previously mentioned, energy is big. Find a good inexpensive method of saving energy. Saving water is just as important and will only get more important. Find a new way to desalinate water, or purify water, or a way to save large amounts of water.

These are just a few suggestions, there are countless others awaiting your discovery. Go forth and Invent and Innovate! Be the next one to come up with that million dollar invention or idea!

Simple Machine Inventions - New Invention Idea Needed

Simple machine inventions are quite gratifying to come up with. Simple is so much better than complicated, at least in my opinion. I’ve come up with a few simple ones, my paper burster, hydrothermal stabilizer, quick-shot foam dispensing nozzle, and even my asparagus harvester could be considered simple machines.

There is however, a new invention idea that needs to be invented. A cat toy that will keep my cats occupied for a few hours a day so they stop pestering me to play with them. I’ve made a bunch of different things for the cats to play with, but nothing high tech.

One of my better cat toys consisted of a large piece of brown wrapping paper about 2 feet square. I taped a long piece of rubber band to the center of the paper with duct tape, and attached the other end of the rubber band to a small plastic ball. Then I place the paper with the ball side down on the floor.

The cats loved it. They would pounce on the lump under the paper and push it and pull it and finally they would end up tearing the paper and capturing the ball. But as with all of the other toys they get used to it and get bored.

It seems to me that a cat toy has to be interactive with the cat in order to keep it interested. With all the available electronics that should not be too difficult. A microcontroller, a couple of sensors, maybe a motor or two or a solenoid and a little creativity and the cats will have there interactivity.

I’ve written more about possible ways of using simple machine inventions for cat toys in this article: New Invention Idea – Toys for Cats. I go into more detail about my ideas for these simple machine inventions for use as interactive toys for cats.

Think small things that move quickly and try to hide. At least that’s what my cats like the best. Little hunters they are.

So please, if you can come up with a great interactive toy for cats please let me know when they go on sale… I’ll be the first one to buy one. Unless of course I come up with something first.