US Patent Query

notGill

Hi all,

Just a brief introduction, I'm part of a group of business students from DCU. We have a module on new business ideas culminating in a Dragons Den style situation next Spring. We have pitched our idea (and designed our product) and our lecturer has advised that we get a US patent to secure intellectual property.

As you can imagine this process appears quite daunting to us, being students!

Can anyone share their experiences with obtaining a US patent, the timeframe/cost etc.

Any advice is much appreciated.

CatFromHue

I don't know myself but you could try and talk to someone in DCU Invent about it and/or/as well as ring the Irish Patent Office about it.

http://www4.dcu.ie/invent/index.shtml
http://www.patentsoffice.ie/

notGill

It's been suggested by a classmate that Invent will want ownership of the Intellectual Property if we receive any help from them. I'll contact both Invent and the Irish Patents office as you suggested.

Being students, we are also of a limited budget so our lecture told us to go for the bigger market, i.e. US patent.

Peterdalkey

http://www.aptma.ie/. Link to patent agents association in Ireland with a full list and contact details of members. I can recommend Anne Ryan & Co, contact a few and get a price for basic protection. The overall EU protection is much cheaper than the USA from memory. Any of them will be able to give you real numbers.

Cheers

Peter

mneylon

The Irish Patents Office staff are very helpful, so it might be worth giving them a call.

notGill

Blacknight wrote: »

The Irish Patents Office staff are very helpful, so it might be worth giving them a call.

One of the lads rang them an hour ago actually. He told him he couldn't help and then hung up!

I think we will go the route of speaking to a IP law firm, I think that will be the most thorough route.

random.stranger

DCU invent IP policy:
http://www4.dcu.ie/invent/dcu_ip_policy.shtml

mneylon

notGill wrote: »

One of the lads rang them an hour ago actually. He told him he couldn't help and then hung up!

I think we will go the route of speaking to a IP law firm, I think that will be the most thorough route.

Odd
I spoke to them several times when I was doing our Irish trademark application a few years ago..

I'd shop around with the IP law companies - they tend to charge top dollar (or Euro) once the word "trademark" or "patent" is mentioned.

If it's the US trademarks and patents you're interested in primarily you might be better off going to a US law firm directly (We did)

notGill

Thanks for the replies everyone.

The query has now changed after the lecturer informed us on Friday that we don't have to get an actual patent, we just have to know everything about it and factor how much it costs into our business idea!

I'll email around some of the law firms in Dublin but I don't know if any of them will help out a few students pro bono.