self patenting

MYK

Patenting your ideas yourself is entirely doable, but the big question is whether your employment contract requires you to assign rights to your inventions to the firm.  You should get competent legal advice on that issue before proceeding.  Some of the issues to consider would include whether your inventions are related to the work you do for the company and whether you've used company equipment or time to develop them.

Costs are going to depend on whether you can handle rejections well.   If you are able to analyze and respond to the (almost) inevitable PTO rejections, thus avoiding having to hire an agent or attorney to deal with them, then the PTO fees will still add up, but how much you get nailed for will depend on how novel your idea is.  You'll have to decide for yourself whether you can make enough money out of your expected patents to show a profit.  Take a look at the prosecution histories of similarly-categorized patents in public PAIR (if you're filing in the U.S., or maybe even if not) to see what they went through.

Judging from the times at which you post, I'm guessing that you aren't in the U.S., so some of the advice given here may not apply in your country.  If you're going to be filing in the U.S., as an individual, you'll have small-entity status, which saves you 50% on most fees.

JimIvey

Well, enforcement of patents, to the extent litigation is involved, will be expensive regardless of who writes the application.  Of course, who writes the application influences how expensive it would be, but I understand the range for a patent trial to be in the $3-5million range.  So, a well-written patent could save you a couple million, but only if you have $3million to maintain the suit.  

Of course, there are more and more patent plaintiff (suer) attorneys/firms popping up with ways to make asserting patents more affordable, including by taking cases on contingency.  Perhaps, in those cases, the difference between a well-written patent and a poorly written patent might be the deciding factor as to whether a litigator takes the case on contingency.

I can't tell you how well you could write the patent application yourself; I don't know anything about your experience.  It sounds like you have none to speak of, or very little.  I worked in this area for 2 years before I felt like I could sign my own papers -- many amendments, applications, and such.  After 3 years, I was allowed by my firm to sign my own papers, but only with partner supervision.  I've tried to teach several new associates over the years, and I've learned that it's a very advanced skill that takes a lot of practice to learn.  So, odds are that quality will vary widely with the amount of skill and experience of the person drafting it.  Quality varied widely in this industry.

Recently, it's been suggested to me to write a book about patents.  At the risk of sounding arrogant, I was thinking this morning of a title .... "Patent It Well" or "Patent It with Style".  Thinking about it....  But my point is that the sort of tips I would give to someone learning to draft their first patent application would literally fill a book.  Needless to say, I can't put them all here -- although, over the years, I've probably posted about 80% or more of those tips in here somewhere.

Regards.

sharanbr

Thank you Jim and MYK

I am in India. Yes, my firm has that all-that-you-ever-think-belongs-to-me signed by me.
But that is only until I am in this firm. The work I am talking about was not a part
of my regular work. The work being in SW, there was hardly any investment except
for access to open SW.

Yes, I dont have any previous experience in patenting. What I am hearing is that
doing myself is risky the first time since lot of unknowns are present.

Regards

JimIvey

By "firm", I though you meant law firm.  I would be surprised that you'd have a "we own all your thoughts" clause in a law firm since inventing is usually not part of practicing law.  But perhaps I misunderstood "firm".

I have no idea what the law is in India, but here (US, California), such clauses are usually limited to just the term of your employment and, often, to things invented using the employer's resources (including time).

Even if your firm owns your ideas, you can ask for permission to pursue your idea on your own.  In other words, the employer can waive such ownership if they like and, other than tipping your hand, it won't hurt to ask.

Lastly, even if you doubt your ability to write your own patent application, a less-than-optimal patent application might be worth more than none at all.  So, if that's your only practical way to proceed, it might be in your interest to do so.  That is entirely a business decision for you, not a legal decision with which an attorney can help.

Regards.

sharanbr

Quote from: JimIvey on 11-14-08 at 11:44 am

JimIvey

Quote from: sharanbr on 11-17-08 at 08:08 am

MYK

Quote from: JimIvey on 11-17-08 at 02:48 pm

sharanbr

Quote from: MYK on 11-17-08 at 03:59 pm