Non-member submission from [Carl Oppedahl <carl@oppedahl.com>]
At 06:44 AM 1/7/2000 , Sandra S Unger wrote:
>Hi,
>I received a phone call from a small inventor. She said "Hi, I have an
>idea
>about XXX. How do I file a patent?"
>
>Does anyone have good advice as to where to send a small inventor who would
>like to file a patent?
>Is there a website with instructions/forms for small inventors?
You didn't say what country's patent the inventor was hoping to obtain. I
will guess you were being asked about the US.
The most important think you should do when you get such a telephone call
is force the inventor to listen to your discussion of time limits for
filing of patent applications. When I get such an inquiry I make them read
the discussion at http://www.patents.com/tl .
I also tell them to purchase a copy of http://www.nolo.com/item/pat.html .
The USPTO web site at http://www.uspto.gov/web/menu/pats.html has sections
of frequently asked questions and the like.
Carl Oppedahl
Oppedahl & Larson LLP
http://www.patents.com
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