Serving Clients Throughout New Jersey
When you invent something new, you have exclusive rights to create or sell what you invented, but only if you were the first person to come up with that idea. Gearhart Law can help New Jersey inventors like you perform a patent search to ensure that you are the first person to come up with a new invention.
If you are an inventor in New Jersey, your livelihood could depend on whether you register a patent with the federal government. The experienced patent attorneys at Gearhart Law can help you determine whether your invention can be registered. Contact our law firm today to schedule a consultation that could protect your financial future.
How Patent Law Works
Compared to many other aspects of law, patent law is relatively simple. If you invent something new, you describe that invention to the government and declare that you are the legal creator. The federal government then confirms that no one else has previously patented an identical or similar invention. If that is the case, your rights are protected under federal law for 20 years.
Benefits of Getting a Patent Approved
If the U.S. government approves your patent, you are the sole owner of that design for 20 years. This means that you are the only one who can build products that incorporate the design unless you sell that right to another party.
The U.S. government will support your rights in civil court. If another party copies that design and sells products based on it, the court will allow you to gain damages for that violation of your rights. Having a patent makes winning that type of civil case much easier.
Furthermore, the government respects your rights to sell the patent or license others to use the patented design. Since your rights last for only 20 years, your ability to sell or license these rights runs out at the same time your patent runs out.
Searching for Patents
The U.S. government grants close to half a million patents every year. And once a specific idea is patented, it can never be patented again, even if the patent has run out. Since the U.S. has been granting patents since 1790, that is tens of millions of patents to search through.
An individual who doesn’t understand how patents are filed could spend a lifetime searching through all of them. You can not afford to spend that kind of time.
However, if you do not search for similar patents first, you could end up spending thousands of dollars and the better part of a year only to be denied. That is almost equally detrimental.
The lawyers at Gearhart Law have decades of experience performing these searches. We will conduct extensive research to try to determine whether your patent is viable. A well-researched patent is much more likely to be approved than one that has not been researched.
How We Can Help if Your Idea Is Similar to an Existing Patent
What can you do if your idea is too similar to a patent that already exists? You should not despair. The U.S. government will approve similar patents as long as they differ enough.
Our attorneys will explain what is similar between your idea and an existing patent, allowing you to make changes to your idea that differentiate it. We understand the law well enough to analyze your concepts and determine whether they will likely be approved.
Furthermore, even if an existing patent is identical to your invention, you may be able to patent improvements on that idea. Improvements to an invention must be patented separately.
Speed Is Critical to the Patent Process
When you are filing for a patent, the faster you act, the more likely your idea will be approved. The U.S. government follows a simple first-come, first-served approach to patent law.
Our patent lawyers understand this and perform searches as quickly as possible. We try to complete all patent searches as thoroughly as we can within days. If you are competing with another inventor, the speed of our patent search could be critical to winning approval.
Contact Patent Search Lawyers in New Jersey Today
If you have come up with a unique idea you want to market, you should patent it as soon as possible. This protects your invention from copycats and also from someone else patenting it.Gearhart Law is a law firm that has a reputation for successfully helping New Jersey inventors register patents with the federal government. Do not wait to protect your valuable investment. Contact our law firm right away to schedule a consultation with an experienced patent law attorney.