PATENT LAW
A patent is the grant of a property right for an invention issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Patent owners have “the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling” the invention in the United States or “importing” the invention into the United States.
In the U.S., patentable subject matter includes any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof. Patentable subject matter must be also novel and non obvious when compared to previously known inventions.
Our registered patent attorneys are trained in engineering and business, in addition to being admitted to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office as attorneys.
The USPTO website has an excellent step by step guide including information on the following:
Determine the type of Intellectual Property protection that you need. Do you need a patent, a trademark, a copyright or do you need to protect your trade secrets or a combination of the above?
Determine whether your invention is patentable. Note that a patent may be applied for only in the name(s) of the actual inventor(s). First you must know what can and cannot be patented:
What can be patented – utility patents are provided for a new, nonobvious and useful: process, machine, article of manufacture, composition of matter, or an improvement of any of the above (Note: In addition to utility patents, encompassing one of the categories above, patent protection is available for (1) ornamental design of an article of manufacture or (2) asexually reproduced plant varieties by design and plant patents.)
What cannot be patented – laws of nature, physical phenomena, abstract ideas, literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works (these can be Copyright protected). Nor inventions which are not useful (such as perpetual motion machines); or offensive to public morality
Note: Inventions must be Novel, Nonobvious, Adequately described or enabled (for one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention) and Claimed by the inventor in clear and definite terms.
After performing the above steps, you must then search to see if your invention has already been publicly disclosed as you cannot get a patent if your invention has already been publicly disclosed. In addition to a thorough search of all previous public disclosures, a search of foreign patents and printed publications should also be conducted. If you are not experienced in performing patent searches, our registered patent attorneys may perform a search for you.
Determine what kind of patent you need: There are three types of patents – Utility, Design, and Plant.
Utility patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or compositions of matters, or any new useful improvement thereof. By far, most patent applications filed at the USPTO are utility applications.
Design patents may be granted to anyone who invents a new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture.
Plant patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of plant.
Your patent application is then completely prepared and submitted it to the patent office along with the required filing fees.
Your application is next reviewed by a USPTO patent examiner.
Once approved by an examiner and you receive your approval you will receive a notice of allowance. After the payment of issuance fees, your patent grant will be mailed on the issue date.
Once you receive your patent, it is important to maintain your patent protection. It is important to note that maintenance fees are required to maintain a patent in force beyond 4, 8, and 12 years after the issue date for utility and reissue utility patents. If the maintenance fee and any applicable surcharge are not paid in a timely manner, the patent will expire.
The cost of a patent application will be determined by a number of considerations:
How complex is your invention?
Do you need international protection?
Do you need expedited service?
Do you want to file a provisional or nonprovisional application?
Our attorneys will work with you to best answer these questions and provide sound business counsel to provide the maximum protection benefits for your invention and, if applicable, your business. Fees will apply for a patent search, professional patent drawings, possible additional claims, and USPTO filing, issuance and maintenance fees.
Our patent attorneys seek to be cost effective for clients. B.C. “Bill” Killough and Ernest “Lip” Lipscomb have many years of experience in filing and prosecuting patent applications, and are nationally recognized for their achievements and authorship and teaching in the field of patent law, yet our fees are frequently lower than those of attorneys at larger firms.
Generally obtaining a patent will take anywhere from one to five years depending on the type and complexity of patent application. Our patent attorneys will be able to better determine a timeline after an initial consultation with you to discuss your specific matter.
Other resources and related areas:
USPTO Patent FAQs
Patent infringement and patent litigation
Intellectual property
Technology licensing
Trademark law
Trade Secrets
Mediation
WHO WE ARE AND HOW WE CAN HELP
Charleston Patent Attorney BC Killough provides legal services, counseling and representation in the highly specialized and regulated areas of Patent law. B.C. and his colleagues at Kim, Lahey & Killough, have over 120+ combined years working in this area of the law translates to hundreds of patent applications filed and prosecuted in both the U.S. and foreign countries with experience with contested proceedings in the European Patent Office as well as litigation in US District Court and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Killough is a former adjunct professor for the Patent Law course at the University of South Carolina School of Law, is an engineering graduate (Georgia Institute of Technology) and a business owner. He has the ability to discuss the intricacies of inventions with engineers, chemists, researchers and scientists, and relate that information to the layperson sitting in a classroom…or to a patent examiner not familiar with a particular field…or in litigation: to a jury.
B.C. Killough is a monthly contributor providing patent case summaries to the Federal Circuit Bar Association’s Circuit Case Digest. In addition, he is South Carolina’s contributor to Thomson Reuters’ Practical Law, Intellectual Property and Technology.
Killough takes client services seriously, working to advance each individual client’s business goals in the most efficient, cost effective, manner possible. Our areas of practice include a broad range of technologies to include:
- Mechanical
- Computer Technology
- Chemical
- Pharmaceutical
- Biotechnology
- Medical Devices
- Information Technology
- Electromechanical Devices
and more.