Stroke of genius: using patents to protect your Million-dollar idea.

• Author: Mischel, Marie
• Position: Techknowledge

Throughout Utah, thousands of inventors tinker in their garages, while companies pour millions into R&D, all hoping to hit the jackpot. But the works not done once you've yelled "Eureka!" The next step is to protect your invention and prevent what in pioneer days was known as claim-jumping. These days, that can be done by filing a patent.

Ideas Don't Count

A brilliant idea alone won't earn you a place next to Steve Jobs on the list of the world's richest people. For a patent, "You have to be able to describe [the invention] to a person with skill in the art how to make and use the invention," says Randall B. Bateman, a registered patent attorney and founder of Bateman IP

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"The biggest mistake that most small businesses make is not documenting things well," Bateman says. He suggests that all inventors keep notebooks to document each step of the process. In many companies, engineers create a log of their work, which their supervisor routinely reviews and signs. This becomes proof that can be submitted in court.

"The biggest flaw that a lot of small inventors do is they have what's affectionately known as the 'poor man's patent,' which is, they write their invention down and mail it to themselves," Bateman says. "The problem with doing that is that most inventors don't write down the full invention; they write very cryptic notes."

Those undecipherable notes won't stand up in court, he says. "In order to be enabling disclosure, it has to be enough that people can figure out what the invention is, how it works."

When to File

Although a patent application must detail exactly how an invention is made, a working model isn't necessary, Bateman says. "A lot of really ground-breaking inventions, they never get reduced to practice before they file the patent application. The engineers just figure out 'This will work,' and they file the patent application. They get around to building it later."

The time between dreaming up a breakthrough product and creating a working model can be long and filled with dead ends, especially with a competitor working to beat you to market. Right now, inventors do have some protection during this limbo: the United States is currently one of the few countries that is a "first to invent" patent jurisdiction rather than a "first to file." This means that if your competitor files a patent for your device, but you can prove that you had the idea first, you win.

However, "the recently passed America Invents...