applying for a patent?

[agg221]

My day job is in commercial engineering R&D, and I have been named on around a dozen patents over the years, so I'll try and set out the options.

 

First thing is that to get a patent granted you need to prove an innovative step and that the invention is not obvious 'to one skilled in the art'. A trivial example of the latter would be if that if the longest log anyone has ever set a processor up to cut is 12" you could not get a patent simply by moving the guide out to 14" as it's obvious, but obviousness can get a lot more subtle and tricky than this.

 

The purpose of a patent is to encourage commercial exploitation. It gives you a protected position for 20yrs to gain market share, in exchange for putting the knowledge in the public domain for general exploitation once the patent runs out.

 

There are a couple of points in your original post which would warrant some thought - the first is that it appears that there is already a patent on a method for achieving the result; the second is that you are not looking for commercial exploitation.

 

With regard to the first - have you reviewed the existing patent? Does it use the approach you have, is it completely different or is it somewhere in between (e.g. different, but not fundamentally)? If it's the same approach, this would form prior art and you would need a licence to access it if the patent is current (has not expired or been allowed to lapse). Your idea could be an extension of the existing patent, in which case you could get a daughter patent, but would still need access to the existing patent to use it. Fundamentally different approach, no problem; somewhere in between you would need to discuss with patent lawyers whether claims could be drafted in such a way as to not be compromised by it.

 

You say you don't want to commercialise it, but you 'don't want your ideas stolen'. Why not? This isn't a flippant comment - you need to work out why. If it's because you feel moral ownership of the concept, you could become the acknowledged inventor of the concept by publication - write an article about it for a relevant magazine and this will form prior art. Alternatively you could file the first stage of the patent, which is pretty cheap, but let it lapse. Again, this will stop anyone else from patenting it themselves, although both approaches will leave people free to use the idea (you could look on this as altruistic). Otherwise, unless you want someone to exploit it commercially and pay you for access, you are effectively saying that you have had a good idea but you don't want anyone else to be able to have access to it in any form. This is regarded as counter to advancing the state of the art, hence patents are designed to prevent this situation arising.

 

If you do want to take it forward, there are other ways. If you just want to get someone to build one for you, you might find a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is more what you are looking for. This formalises confidentiality when you are discussing it with an engineering firm. If you need an NDA template at some point, drop me a PM as I can send you a standard one.

 

Beyond this, you could look at selling access to the concept, either outright or on a royalty basis. You do not need a patent to do this. Formalised intellectual property (IP) in the form of a design right can be easier to obtain and is usually sufficient. If you initiate discussions under NDA, a company can't make use of the concept until you have reached an agreement. However, when thinking about this, consider that a company will only adopt a new concept if it can increase their revenue. If it allows them to take greater market share in a closed market, or extend the overall scope of the market, they may be interested, but usually only so long as the payment to you is a percentage of the additional profit they are gaining by doing so - otherwise they may as well not bother.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Alec

 

edit: I would echo the comment about not disclosing the concept on here.

Edited October 19, 2014 by agg221

[Graham w]

I think some of the larger Pinosa machines do. Might even have been Pezzolato

 

ive seen the pezzolato and the smaller pinosa processors but never searched the larger models their higher output is 28 tons per hour on firewood around 70cm in length. they are very professional bits of kit but they are different

[Graham w]

agg221 thankyou for your post

 

IP sounds like a good direction.

[renewablejohn]

Complete waste of time. China does not recognise patents and actively encourages companies to infringe patent rights as a means of encouraging business to set up operations in China. By the time you go through the courts arguing your case the 20 years will be up. As for posting your designs on forums to stop others patenting from experience these does not work as the US patent office is far less rigourous and will accept patents without a great deal of research of previous patents. I have now stopped posting my projects on the internet as I was fed up of US patents being raised on my ideas 6 months later.

[haljam]

I thought that once an idea is in the public domain, eg on an open blog of forum, it makes it more or less impossible to patent. Be careful who to speak to if you really want to make some cash out of the idea.