Having an idea and creating an invention is only one of the amazing things that our minds can do. Think of all the incredible things that have been created even in your lifetime. Anyone can invent something and file a patent with the help of patent lawyers to protect their ideas or inventions. However, it’s easy to make mistakes when inventing, especially if you do not have a trademark attorney to help you. Here are some of the most common mistakes that are made.

The inventor sold their invention.
According to patent law, once you sell a patent, you have only one year in order to file a patent application either provisional or non provisional. If you do not file that year then you will have essentially forfeited your opportunity and your right to get a patent at all. This is why you should not sell your idea of invention, or offer it up without filing your patent application first. It’s best to wait and make sure that you have a patent before you do anything because even if you file, your application could be incorrectly filled out which will prolong the process and you’ll need to start over. This is why it’s best to have a trademark attorney to help you make sure that the petition is properly filled out before you submit it.

The inventory used the invention out in public.
If you use your invention out in public before you your patent attorney petitioned for your patent, then someone could see what you have done and create the same product themselves, file the petition for the patent, have it accept and call the invention their own. Your trademark attorney will tell you that you need to protect your invention from the public eye until you have received your own patent. There are also laws regarding the amount of time that you have to file a patent from the first time that you used it publicly. Again, that amount of time, in America, is 12 months.

The inventor did not properly fill out the patent application.
This is the number one reason that you need a trademark attorney or patent lawyer. Filling out the application is one of the most important steps to getting a patent. If you do this wrong, you could be denied a patent. This is especially true when it comes to provisional patent applications because the patent office does not look at provisional applications. Because of this, it’s legal for you to obtain help from vendors who are not lawyers or legal help at all but offer their help for a cheap price. If you accept this, you might be setting yourself up for failure. Filing a bad provisional patent petition does not help you in the least and could in fact hinder your chances of getting a good one.

The inventor did not search the Internet.
There have been so many things that have been invented that it’s difficult to come up with something that has not already been patented. The truth is, a quick search on the Internet would let you know if someone has already had your idea. You need to search patents and patent applications as well to make sure but you could hire a professional to do that. The Internet search for products and similar ideas is your responsibility. Once you both confirm that your idea is not on the Internet and has no patent referenced, then you can proceed with your petition as planned.

The inventor did not preform a patent search.
This is mentioned briefly in the paragraph above. Doing your own patent search, while a good idea, may not give you the answers you need. The Internet does not have all of the patents in waiting. At any given time there are far more than 9,000,000 patents in the United States and millions of applications that have not been patented. This makes it almost impossible to do a search without finding something similar to your idea. This is why you want to hire a professional to do the job for you. They will know what to look for in a patent to see if, even though the idea is similar to yours, you can still file a petition.