Insights

Most patent advice online is either marketing copy or a restatement of the statute. These articles try to be neither. They cover the questions inventors and founders actually ask, with the specifics that change the answer, written by a registered U.S. patent attorney who is also a mechanical engineer and a working inventor.

• Patent Basics

  How to Choose a Patent Attorney

  The right one understands what you built, tells you when not to file, and puts the fee in writing before any work starts. Here is how to tell.

• Patent Process

  What Happens After You File a Patent Application

  Filing is the start of a long, mostly quiet process with a few deadlines that are not. Here is the sequence, and what each step means for you.

• Patent Process

  You Got an Office Action. Now What?

  A first rejection is the normal start of examination, not the end of it. What the rejection sections mean in plain words, what a response does, and what to send your attorney.

• Startups

  The IP Checklist Investors Run Before a Raise

  Assignments, chain of title, patent coverage of the product, the trademark on the name, and open source. Here is how to work each item before someone else does.

• Patent Basics

  Can You Patent an Idea?

  The short answer is no. The useful answer is what you need instead, and how close you probably already are.

• Deadlines

  What Happens If You Disclose Your Invention Before Filing

  A trade show booth, a conference paper, or a pitch without an NDA can start a clock you cannot stop. Here is what survives and what does not.

• Patent Basics

  Provisional vs Non-Provisional: Which Should You File?

  One buys you time and a priority date. The other is the application that actually becomes a patent. Choosing wrong is expensive in both directions.

• AI & Software

  Are AI Inventions Patentable?

  Yes, and the rejection rate is not what determines the outcome. How the application is drafted is.

• IP Strategy

  Patent or Trade Secret?

  One question settles most of these decisions: can a competitor see it in your product?

• Startups

  Do You Own the IP Your Contractor Built?

  Probably not. Paying someone to invent something does not transfer patent rights, and "work made for hire" does not apply to patents.

• Startups

  What Investors Actually Check in IP Diligence

  The IP section of a diligence request list is short and predictable. Failing it is what takes time, not passing it.

• Patent Basics

  How Long Does a Patent Last?

  Twenty years from filing, with three chances to lose it early and several ways to get time back.

• AI & Filing

  You Filed Your Patent With AI. Now What?

  The document looked finished. Here is how to find out whether it actually was, while your options are still open.