
Ask HN: DIY Patent - edf13
Has anyone completed their own patent application - without any legal or professional counsel?<p>Was it reasonably easy - Or a complete nightmare and not worthwhile on your own?
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danieltillett
Yes it is easy. The way to do it on your own is just copy the format and
claims from other published patents. Don’t worry about plagiarism - patent
attorneys certainly don’t in practice.

The bigger issue is finding all the relevant references. The easiest way is
find a half dozen patents similar to yours and just copy the references. The
examiner will find the rest for you.

Where you will run into problems is at the examination stage where the patent
examiner will try to throw your patent out and/or exclude all your claims. You
just spend a lot of time arguing with them and eventually you reach some sort
of compromise.

One approach I do think is a good idea with self-patenting is to create a
thicket of patents. Put in lots of simple, short patents with very limited
claims (say 3 to 4). The basic idea here is to minimise the attack surface for
the examiner and just try to get some through. If you are doing this yourself
it is a much more cost effective option than if you are paying a patent
attorney.

I should end by saying that unless the patent(s) are for marketing purposes it
is probably a waste of time. No small business can afford to enforce a patent
so they are rather worthless. They can have value to a large company in an
acquisition situation so I guess that is one reason to maybe do this - in this
case the thicket approach is more desirable.

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matt_the_bass
I would start by determining what you goal of the patent is. Do you want it:

1\. for marketing purposes (to advertise a product based on patented
technology)

2\. As part of a larger portfolio for future licensing

3\. To protect yourself from another company from competing with you.

Your answer to the above should guide you on how much to spend on your patent.

Case 1, it doesn’t really matter how “good” your patent is a long as it gets
issued. Your customers likely won’t bother looking. So maybe try to save so
cash and file yourself.

Case 2: you want the patent to be as broad as possible. Plus include as many
alternate but less optimal solutions. Get a good attorney who is familiar with
your field. They may charge $3-600/hour but it ma be worth it. You can often
get a jr attorney to do a lot of the tedious parts under the guidance of the
Sr partner.

Case 3: patents don’t prevent others from infringing. They only give you the
right to litigate. Would you be able to afford to litigate? That will cost way
more than the patent itself. If the infringer is a large company, they can
just litigate you out of your bank account. On this case? Why bother with even
filing?

The process that works well for me is I write a detailed description of the
invention and draft claims. Then hand it over to my attorneys to make better.
They tell me my method works as a good data dump and that it saves them a lot
of time.

Good luck!

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billsimms
Not suggesting you do or don't do it yourself, but you might read the book
"Patent it yourself: your step-by-step guide to filing at the U.S. patent
office" by David Pressman from Nolo Press. That has a lot of experience in
those pages. He has done four other books on the same topic that you might
also read.

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jacquesm
Don't do it. The language used in patent applications is its very own special
form of legalese. And hiring a patent attorney isn't all that expensive
compared to your regular lawsuit legal eagles.

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danieltillett
I disagree that patent attorneys are not that expensive.

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staticautomatic
You might be able to get away with writing a provisional on your own (the key
is to be as broad as possible) but I wouldn't try to do a full utility
application without a lawyer.

