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Utility patents are considered to be the most valuable way to protect novel innovations of devices, compositions and processes which have use in industry. This is because the owner of a valid United States Patent is granted the right to grant licenses to competitors or to exclude competitors from practicing the invention in the United States during the term of the patent.

Patents compared to agreement with U.S. Government

Patents are often compared to an agreement with the United States Government on behalf of the public trust. In exchange for the inventor providing the public with a full written description of his or her invention, the inventor gets a limited term to exclude competition from practicing his or her invention (for most inventions made after 1995, the term is 20 years from the date of filing a patent application). Once this term has expired, the invention becomes part of the public domain, and can be practiced by the public without need for a license as was explained on how do you patent an idea with InventHelp.

“Blocking” patents

It should be noted that a patent does not assure that the inventor will be able to practice the invention without infringing upon the rights of other ‘blocking’ patents. In this regard, an invention is analogous to a piece of property which may be surrounded by several independent gated fences. In order for one to access the property, one must be in possession of keys to each and every gate that surrounds the property.

Similarly, to practice an invention, one must be entitled — through ownership or license — to practice under each valid United States Patent which covers aspects of the invention, and which has not expired. Eventually, each patent covering an invention should expire, and practice of the invention by the public will be allowed without a license.

In addition to utility patents, there are patents designed to cover original designs (“design patents”) and asexually produced plants (“plant patents”).

For more information on patents, see the United States Patent and Trademark Office website or read how to patent an idea with InventHelp article.

Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials like metals, or thermoplastics by causing coalescence. When you melt the workpieces and add a filler material to form a liquid metal glue (the weld pool), it cools to become a strong joint.

Sometimes you need to apply pressure and heat combined to produce the weld. This is completely in contrast to soldering or brazing, which involve melting a lower-melting-point material between pieces to make them bond together without melting the workpieces.

There are many different energy sources to be used for welding, and some of them are; gas flame, electric arc, electron beam, ultrasound, friction, and laser to name a few. Welding fabrication can be performed in open air, under water, and in outer space.

Welding is dangerous, and should only be performed by professional welders that have been fully trained. Some of the things that can happen from poor safety when welding or welding fabrication are burns, electric shock, poisonous fumes, eye damage, and overexposure to ultraviolet light.

Shielded Metal Arc Welding is now one of the most popular welding methods. Arktek company employs many different types of welding services including Arc Welding as you can see from their website – arktekindustries.com.au.

Arktek can handle your welding fabrication project today. Tell them what you want to build, and Arktek can get it done for you!

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office requires that the representative of the inventor before the Office be admitted to practice before the Patent and Trademark Office. Persons who seek to become admitted are required to have a 4 year college engineering degree and a technical background. Engineers can study patent law and become admitted to practice before the Patent Office by preparing for (studying patent law statues and patent practice), then sitting for and passing the ‘Patent Bar’ exam.

While a degreed engineer need not have a law school degree to be admitted to practice before the PTO, the PTO requires that an attorney have an engineering degree and technical background to be admitted to patent practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. An attorney without a technical degree can not be admitted to patent practice before the USPTO. This, of course, limits the pool rather substantially, and makes patent attorneys one of the highest compensated class of attorneys. Likewise, 37 CFR 10.31 does not allow patent agents to practice in trademark law before the USPTO, this being open only to attorneys. Patent Agencies, such as Invent Help, are limited to patent case preparation, filing of patent applications, oaths, declarations assignments and prosecution of the patent application before the Patent Office.

The pass rate for the bar exam is rather low, usually around 30% (60 to 70% of all aspiring patent attorneys and patent agents fail the exam and are not admitted to practice). As more attorneys take the bar exam than agents, numerically more attorneys fail than agents. If one fails the patent bar, one can return to concentrated study of patent law statutes and procedure in preparation for the exam and retake the exam.

There are many patent practitioners and agencies, such as InventHelp, to choose from, so you are advised to shop around. The Patent Office maintains a public list of all practitioners who are admitted to practice before the patent office. The list is easily available from the Patent Office website ‘www.uspto.gov’. The list contains names, addresses and phone numbers. Some of the listed patent attorneys and agents work solely inside corporations and may not be available for private outside work, while others are available independently.

Many inventors pursue the perfection of a science as a goal in
its own right, without concern for the ownership or commercial
value of the technology. It has been said that Thomas Edison, who
obtained more than 1,000 patents, conceived thousands of other
inventions that he described in notebooks.

But most scientists today do not have the luxury of snubbing
their noses at those who want to exploit the fruits of their work.
They know by the terms of their employment agreements that they are not only accountable for meeting certain goals, but are under an
obligation to disclose and assign the rights to any inventions they conceive to their employers.

They are also under an obligation to cooperate in assisting their employer obtain patents covering their ideas. Such assistance is not insignificant. It may involve signing documents, conducting prior art searches, helping the patent attorney to prepare patent applications, addressing the patent examiner’s questions, and assisting attorneys with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”). There are patent agencies such as InventHelp that could help you with all these steps as you can see from InventHelp reviews online.

Although most scientists generally understand their obligations to their employers with regard to their discoveries and inventions, they do not appreciate how what they do every day may affect the future disposition of their ideas. For instance, publishing and sharing information and materials with scientists outside their institution is both routine and desirable for the advancement of science.

However, the timing and monitoring of such activities is critical in protecting patent rights. Inventions that are disclosed before a patent application is filed may preclude the patentability of that invention. Collaborations that are not well documented may result in the loss of the rights of a technology to a different institution.

Proper documentation is particularly important both for
determining who the inventors are and for proving when the
invention was conceived. Even where there is no question with
regard to inventorship, the same invention may be conceived independently by different inventors at different institutions at about the same time. That is why every inventor needs an patent agency – learn why new inventors turn to InventHelp.

These situations come to light when there are competing applications or patents that cover the same invention. In such cases, the PTO may declare an “interference” between the parties to determine who was the first to invent. Because the party that establishes that it invented first will be the winner, written evidence of who did what and when is critical.