Patent Attorney and Founder
Hi everyone I’m JD Houvener your host of the bold today’s show where you the inventor entrepreneur business owner get your daily dose of inspiration so if you go make the world a better place all right we’re here in this five-part series talking about patent search opinions and looking at all the different options you have as an inventor as a business owner I’m gonna be hiring an inventor an employee whether that’s what do you want you’re ready to do some research you’ve got your invention package stuff but you’re not quite sure whether it’s been done before and so we’ve talked this whole week about all different options that you have we’ve been through the option of not doing a search at all doing the search on your own and then hiring sort of a cheap online LegalZoom type of a service you want to take it one more step in terms of making things better you can hire a patent agent no patent agent is not an attorney but they are registered at the Patent Office that means they’ve taken and passed an examination and they are they have the knowledge of the patent law and they understand as much as an examiner does all right and so you’re basically hiring a patent examiner off the clock to go do research for you now that’s way better then of course not doing a search doing it yourself or doing a really cheap online search with some party that’s not necessarily licensed the major issue with hiring a patent agent is that it’s still gonna be unclear in terms of patentability right you don’t necessarily know whether your invention is one eligible under the current law because what is a patent agent missing a lot agree okay having a law degree in an education in reading case law is huge in terms of patenting what happens between when legislative bills get passed and the next legislative bill gets passed several court cases in fact in this case hundreds of court cases from the Federal Circuit of Appeals district courts and yes the Supreme Court have come down since the last legislative change in patent law 2013 you know over five years ago the patent laws were changed and in that five years like I said earlier there’s been over a hundred federal Supreme Court cases that have come down changing the law about how patents work what a patent agent is going to miss is an actual understanding of the current law and so unfortunately by hiring a patent agent it’s like you’re going to be doing the search the equivalent of five years ago or whenever the last law was put into place and so it’s going to be better than nothing better than you know doing something online but it’s not going to be the best model for you if you’re looking to get the absolute best certainty on patent eligibility and patentability so well I certainly don’t wanna knock anyone else in the profession you just got to know going into it eyes wide open what you’re getting when you hire a patent agent versus a patent attorney I’m your host JD who Vernor of the bold Today Show I hope this has been educational and if you would please go visit our website at old patents com we’ll get you more information about what a patentability opinion by a lawyer a patent attorney can get you hope you have a wonderful day today go big go bold
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