7n7is, can you patent your avatar? ...It's a great one!
Not in the US of A. I'm not the inventor and its been public too long.
How do I patent my idea?
* Patent it before someone else does! ...Get your free inventor kit today. ... http://www.patentlybrilliant.com
* Patent it before someone else does! ...Get your free inventor kit today. ... http://www.patentlybrilliant.com
I was only kidding (about the patent, not about his cool avatar).
OK, I couldn't tell, sorry.
It's a strange thing that the Copyright Office is part of the Library of Congress and not part of the Patent and Trademark Office. The Library of Congress is in the Legislative Branch whereas the PTO is in the Executive Branch. Go figure.
Oh sorry I didn't know that; if only I knew ...
* So Dirk, you are a patent examiner? ...Starts to make a lot of sense now.
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According to the USPTO:
"A design consists of the visual ornamental characteristics embodied in, or applied to, an article of manufacture. Since a design is manifested in appearance, the subject matter of a design patent application may relate to the configuration or shape of an article, to the surface ornamentation applied to an article, or to the combination of configuration and surface ornamentation. A design for surface ornamentation is inseparable from the article to which it is applied and cannot exist alone. It must be a definite pattern of surface ornamentation, applied to an article of manufacture."
Since your avatar does not meet this definition, then you cannot get a design patent on it. sorry.
If you manufactured an object that looked like your avatar, then your could apply for a design patent on that.
Oh sorry I didn't know that; if only I knew ...
* So Dirk, you are a patent examiner? ...Starts to make a lot of sense now.
Yes. 32 years and counting....
Dirk........32 years Huh? I'd bet you have "seen it all"......
Would it be 'out of order' to ask what your "specialty" might be? If not, I understand.
I too have that weird idea that might very well "change the World". I have not seen any evidence of my electronic device whatsoever. Of course I have not mentioned just what it is, for fear of 'theft' & I am considering the patent process but I fear the convoluted, expensive, difficult process.
This device IS one of those "why didn't I think of that" things. If it works as I envision it, it could indeed change a lot of things. I just need to prototype and get it working, on a crude level....there is no reason why it won't work.
What I do need to do is do that "prior art"? research...to see if someone has the same idea....but I have not seen anything at all similar anywhere.
____________________________________________________Rick........
Would it be 'out of order' to ask what your "specialty" might be? If not, I understand.
I too have that weird idea that might very well "change the World". I have not seen any evidence of my electronic device whatsoever. Of course I have not mentioned just what it is, for fear of 'theft' & I am considering the patent process but I fear the convoluted, expensive, difficult process.
This device IS one of those "why didn't I think of that" things. If it works as I envision it, it could indeed change a lot of things. I just need to prototype and get it working, on a crude level....there is no reason why it won't work.
What I do need to do is do that "prior art"? research...to see if someone has the same idea....but I have not seen anything at all similar anywhere.
____________________________________________________Rick........
Hi Rick, no problem. I've seen a lot of stuff over the years. As some of you may not know, patent examiners specialize in very specific fields, which we call "arts". My art is gearing, specifically, transmissions and differentials for cars, trucks, etc. including the controls for automatic transmissions. I'm a mechanical engineer by trade. I pretend to be an audio guy on this message forum. <g>
I would recommend that you perform a search of the prior art for your device. You can ask the pertinent patent examiner for a search. That's one of the services we provide. Since we cannot obtain a patent, and have taken an oath, your secrets are safe with us. On the USPTO site there should be a index to the US patent classification system. Look there first for some ideas on which class and subclass to search. Then, use the employee lookup search tool to find the examiners who work in that class. Call them up and ask them for a search. Describe your invention to them as best you can. If they are not cooperative, contact their supervisor, who is called an "SPE".
I had an idea for a tachometer for a car. It had 3 pointers instead of the usual 1. One indicated the present engine speed. Another indicated the speed the engine would be at if an upshift were performed, and the third indicated the speed the engine would be at if a downshift were performed. This way, a driver could avoid overreving or underreving the engine. Of course, LED's or other display devices could be used to indicate the same thing. I never searched it because I can't obtain a patent. We give up that right in order to work at the Office.
I will do that Dirk!........
BTW, I myself am a semi-retired auto mechanic of 24+ years...I did notice your idea would be quite useful for 18 Wheelers with non-synchro boxes....but you know that!
Being as I have an Electronics degree & worked in shops over the years, I turned 'back' to my Electronics.....which everyone I worked with had said "Why are you working here?"...in the shop.
There's no pretending is there? You like electronics right? You want to learn new things, discover, experiment, just like the rest of us. Perhaps your interest in Audio & your professional background will yield some odd hybrid idea?....the creative process. It is too bad you can't patent the idea but you can "release it" to the World in general.....& who knows? Maybe your idea will show up in some product in the future....so you can say with outright smug confidence, "that was my idea".
________________________________________________Rick..........
BTW, I myself am a semi-retired auto mechanic of 24+ years...I did notice your idea would be quite useful for 18 Wheelers with non-synchro boxes....but you know that!
Being as I have an Electronics degree & worked in shops over the years, I turned 'back' to my Electronics.....which everyone I worked with had said "Why are you working here?"...in the shop.
There's no pretending is there? You like electronics right? You want to learn new things, discover, experiment, just like the rest of us. Perhaps your interest in Audio & your professional background will yield some odd hybrid idea?....the creative process. It is too bad you can't patent the idea but you can "release it" to the World in general.....& who knows? Maybe your idea will show up in some product in the future....so you can say with outright smug confidence, "that was my idea".
________________________________________________Rick..........
Thanks Rick!
Yeah, me and friend are playing around with developing some audio products for sale. We have a FB page and that's about it. I'm fascinated by airplane mechanics and air frame construction, so we are developing a design aesthetic we call "Aero-Punk". It's like Steam Punk but with airplane technology.
Does the PTO have a public link to the formula for Coke? If not, I'm not sure of the purpose/effectiveness of the analogy, at least without a little more fleshing out. (Not a request, just an observation.)
Of course no one can provide such an example, or it wouldn't be secret.
Anyhow, I can't agree with all that you state (e.g. the 2nd sentence of your reply), but I've concluded that there is a significant amount that I do agree with and just wince from the way you state it.
Some pictures of the patents that were available to the public. They're all gone now and are on databases now.
Cp4-2 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Cp4-2 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Was that in Crystal City? I seem to recall that it looked like that. Our search area looked completely different.
That was Crystal City. They threw all the paper patents away before they moved to the old town Alexandria area. I thought you would remember that. The other sets of pictures are of the USDA library in Beltsville, Md. and some airplanes that were at a restaurant in College Park, Md. near the airport.
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I only rarely went down to the public stacks when we were in Crystal City. We were all really upset when they threw out the paper copies. Many examiners had made notes on them which really helped us do better searching. At the time, the head of the PTO thought that computer searching was already the be-all end-all of what we needed. They were clueless about how we actually performed our jobs.
We also had a really cool scientific library. There was a compiled book that contained just about all of Tesla's patents, for example. They also had all of the original GE tube data sheets in GE binders.... sigh. It's all gone now as far as I know.
Sometimes the system works exactly as it is supposed to.
I was in a company that did a lot of contract research/development. At least one of the companies that came to us said ~We tried to figure a way around your patents and only came to you when our patent department said there was no way around them. Another company that we developed a product for, balked at paying royalties for the agreed on amount. They confessed to a similar scheme where they tried to disallow/work around our patents to renegotiate a lower or no fee arrangement.
There is the situation with abuse, of course. The patent and copyright laws were IMO set up to encourage smart and talented people to work in the USA and they worked well for the first couple of centuries.
It's more of a problem with the litigious nature of people then anything else. Turning out too many lawyers and not enough engineers. Joke goes,
Q: Why does New Jersey have all the chemical waste dumps and California has all the lawyers?
A: New Jersey got first pick.
I was in a company that did a lot of contract research/development. At least one of the companies that came to us said ~We tried to figure a way around your patents and only came to you when our patent department said there was no way around them. Another company that we developed a product for, balked at paying royalties for the agreed on amount. They confessed to a similar scheme where they tried to disallow/work around our patents to renegotiate a lower or no fee arrangement.
There is the situation with abuse, of course. The patent and copyright laws were IMO set up to encourage smart and talented people to work in the USA and they worked well for the first couple of centuries.
It's more of a problem with the litigious nature of people then anything else. Turning out too many lawyers and not enough engineers. Joke goes,
Q: Why does New Jersey have all the chemical waste dumps and California has all the lawyers?
A: New Jersey got first pick.
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