George White

Patent Agent

Long Beach, CA 90814
ph: 562 897-1155
fax: 562 597-1368

Services

I provide services tailored to your situation:
  • a sounding board for your ideas,
  • patent searching services,
  • how you might protect your IP,
  • patentability opinions,
  • drafting, filing and prosecution of Utility
    and Design Patents,
  • drafting and filing of Provisional Patents.

  • Cost

    Searches are almost always on a fixed price basis. For patent drafting and prosecution I generally charge by the hour. In some cases I can offer a fixed price for a project or an hourly charge with a not-to-exceed ceiling on your fees to me.

  • Small Company?

    As someone who started a small company and, through no fault of others, had inadequate patent protection, I would advise you to find an IP professional who can help you look at the big picture of your products, technologies and future plans. You probably need to be selective in what level of patent protection you need.

  • Medium Size Company, Already have Patent Attorney?

    There may be ways to improve the cost-effectiveness of your IP protection process by having a patent agent do some of the leg-work. Informal discussions with engineers, attending product planning meetings and conducting frequent informal searches may be tasks that are not always practical for your outside patent attorney to perform. Many large companies have patent agents and attorneys in-house who complement the work of their external IP attorneys.

Individual Inventor
Considering Doing it yourself?

This can be done and may the best path for some who have the interest and time to learn and to keep up with changes in both procedural and substantive patent issues. I recommend reading patent blogs such as Patenty-O as a way to see if your interest level for the subject is sufficient to support the learning curve ahead. In any case, the more familiar with the patenting process you are, the better.

Provisional Patent?

It is a case-by-case decision in my opinion, as to the wisdom of filing a so-called PPA. The very short version of the issues are: On the one hand it is inexpensive ($110 fee to the USPTO) to file and there are very few formal requirements. In some cases it is critical to do quickly. On the other hand it can lead to a false sense that "patent-pending" means that you are covered when you are not. There are a few mistakes that can be made which could actually hurt your future utility patent. Please, do a search on the pros and cons of provisional patents.

Resources

Some useful links:

google patents - simple patent searching
Inventor's Forum - if you are in So. Calif, attend a lecture!
11 Commandments of Inventing - Oklahoma State Univ.
USPTO Inventors Assistance
NAPP directory - find professionals (upper right corner)

And please be careful regarding "invention assistance" web sites and companies.

USPTO invention promoter complaints - check them out!


 

Copyright (c) 2008 George White All rights reserved.

 

Long Beach, CA 90814
ph: 562 897-1155
fax: 562 597-1368