Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights
Law Offices of Michael A. Blake, LLC
The original speaker Adam Rosenberg is experiencing a power outage in his entire county. So we will reschedule him. I will be speaking tonight on the pros and cons of provisional patent applications. Hope to see you there. The link is: https://Fairfield.zoom.us/j/9622684377
My client SIGNABLES, LLC of Florida and Lauren Cecchi of NY, recently received a design patent on their Memorabilia Ball Simulacrum. SIGNABLES, LLC seeks to improve the autograph experience by offering an authentic, display-ready keepsake. In other words, a Signable! The patent can be seen here.
My client David R. Winn of Westport, CT recently received a patent on his invention for “Transparent and colorless hardcoating films for optical materials with a tunable index of refraction and scratch resistance, as formed from anodic aluminum films”. This invention could improve eyeglass lenses in new an amazing ways. The patent can be seen here.
I would like to congratulate my clients Connecticut Analytical Corporation and Joseph Bango on recieving a patent on their “Apparatus, system, and method for restrictive or selective firearm and smart gun weapon control”. Connecticut Analytical Corporation is located in Bethany, CT. I worked with Mr. Bango on preparing, filing, and prosecuting the patent application. The patent can be seen here.
Please congratulate my clients Joseph Bango and Connecticut Analytical Corporation of Bethany, CT on receiving a patent on their timely invention for a Method for analysis of aerosolized biological species in epidemic and pandemic prediction. The patent can be seen here.
I would like to congratulate my client Rober Neuner, the CEO of Boost Oxygen, on receiving a design patent on his new mask design. I filed and prosecuted Robert’s patent application with the USPTO, and the patent was issued in February of 2022. The patent can be seen here. Boost Oxygen and Robert Neuner were recently seen on the Shark Tank. Boost Oxygen is headquartered in Milford, CT.
My clients Sylwester Sudol and Ireneusz Sudol from the Naugatuck Valley Connecticut recently received their Patent from the USPTO for their Food scale with adjustable brackets I prepared, filed, and prosecuted the patent application on their behalf. You can see the patent here.
I was recently thinking about the television and internet advertisements I have seen recently for invention promotion and invention submission companies. You know the ones, where they say “Do you have an invention, or product?” or “We can submit your product to companies!”
Please be careful.
I have had at least 4 or 5 clients come in after spending thousands of dollars with such companies, and who received very little in return. Usually they get a beautiful hard-bound report that gives a short summary of their product or invention, then has a “market analysis” section that talks about how gigantic the market is for that product in the US or the world, and how they could possibly make hundreds of thousands or more if they pursue their product or invention. When I look at these pretty reports, this market analysis is almost always little more than boilerplate language with no real analysis of the client’s invention or product. When I talk to the clients they invariably tell me that they only talked to a salesperson on the phone, and they salesperson says something like “If you want to take this product to the next step, you need to pay us ____ thousands of dollars”. But they never talk to a patent attorney at the invention promotion company.
Numbers I have seen show that as little as 0.035% (that is less than 1/10 of 1 percent!) and up to 0.37% of clients of invention promotion companies ever make more than what they spend in fees to the invention promotion companies. IPWATCHDOG has an article on these percentages that can be seen here.
Making money on inventions is hard, but using invention promotion companies can end up costing you a lot of money with very little to show for it.
What I recommend for inventors to achieve success is that they generally have to do the leg work on their own. They have to go out and hustle their inventions themselves, and get their products made and put on store shelves, or sold through the internet. Paying a lot of money to an invention promotion company gives you well less than a 1% chance of making more money than you spend on fees.
If you talk to a registered patent attorney, they have a duty to give you honest counseling on the best way forward. As a patent attorney, I take a critical look at all my clients’ inventions and give them my best advice on whether it is worth pursuing the invention.
My client Ronald J. Reuter was recently issued a United States Patent on his Mooring apparatus and system. His patent can be seen here. I prepared his patent application and prosecuted it to issuance at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.