Poor Man's Patent

Ever due to the fact law school I have been asked about the "Poor Man's Patent". And ever considering that then the answer is the similar now as it was then: there's no such thing. According to the "Poor Man's Patent", the inventor just writes down his invention on paper and sends it to himself in the mail. Supposedly, this sealed envelope with the postmarked date will signify the date of invention and will somehow accord monopoly rights in the invention. The notion of a "Poor Man's Patent" is an enduring myth with the staying power of urban legends such as Elvis sightings and UFOs. These urban legends could sound "truthy" but are specious.

The only way to safeguard the novelty of an invention such as novel devices, business procedures, and exclusive designs by means of patent law is to file a patent application. Now, it is true that establishing a date of reduction to practice is crucial in some instances, a "Poor Man's Patent" is most likely not the way to go. A much better technique of establishing a date of invention is a lab notebook. In this lab notebook, the inventor would record his experiments, date and sign it in each and every entry. However, you should note that a lab notebook would NOT give you patent rights either. It would just establish a date of conception or reduction to practice for the invention which may be significant in subsequent patent prosecution or patent litigation.

Now, if somebody is looking for the cheapest way to safeguard intellectual property, Copyright law might be applicable in limited cases. 1 example could possibly be source code or object code in software program. Due to the fact software code is protectable under both patent law and copyright law, a Copyright registration may well accord some intellectual property protection. Nevertheless, you should note that the $45 registration fee would not safeguard against reverse-engineering and other different fair uses which may not completely protect your invention. Note that Copyright law will not protect inventions such as devices, novel techniques, and so on. Copyright law only protects the expression of ideas, and not the underlying concepts themselves.