Radio Broadcast (May 1923-Oct 1923)

Protecting Your Invention '37 in either building an actual operative machine, or (what is equally effective) filing a patent application. This latter is called "constructive" reduction to practice. Under certain circumstances two months' delay has been held lack of diligence; and eight years has been held diligence; so you see how little the time element has to do with the question. If you apply for a patent, a diligent reduction to practice is sufficient to entitle you to claim your original conception date. But, if you do not apply for a patent, you will have to rely on your first bona fide sale, public use or publication. A fake sale won't do. Hence the importance of selling, usingor publishing as early as possible. But this has the disadvantage of starting the running of the twoyear period, after which your right to apply for a patent is automatically forfeited. And in the case of publication, there is the additional danger of having your write-up construed as a dedication of your invention to the public. So be sure and include in your writeup a statement that you intend to apply for a patent. On the whole, therefore, it is much wiser to apply for a patent, even for the mere purpose of retaining your own right to make your own invention. But if you are sure that you do not want a patent, you can effectively play the dog in the manger by publishing a full account of your invention in some magazine. This will render void any patent thereafter conceived; and after two years will render void any patent application thereafter filed, even if conceived prior to your publication. Beware of permitting the general use of your device prior to your applying for a patent, for this is likely to be construed as a complete abandonment of your invention. If you decide to apply for a patent, the first point for you to settle in your own mind is just why you have so decided. Is it because of the fundamental value of the patented novelty; or as a mere scare-crow to keep others from duplicating some distinctive but not particularly patentable feature? Is it to protect yourself in manufacturing your own device? Is it as a mere feeler, to save the expense of an attorney's search of the prior art ; or to drag others into an interference, and thus ascertain what are the latest developments along certain lines? Is it to sell the patent, or to secure royalties? Or is it for some other reason? On an intelligent analysis of these questions, at the outset, will depend the handling of the case to the best advantage. Very often, if your chief desire is merely to keep some one from making a "Chinese copy" of your machine, you can secure a "design patent" on itsartistic appearance, even though the machine itself possesses no patentable novelty. But the Patent Office is particularly on its guard against this subterfuge. If you decide to apply for a patent, you or your attorney must prepare a drawing, a petition, a specification, some claims, and an oath. These must be gotten up in exact accordance with the " Rules of Practice," a booklet distributed free by the Patent Office. It would pay every inventor to have a copy of this booklet, and to study it frequently. As to whether or not to have a lawyer, and what kind of a lawyer to get, see next month's article. The Patent Office has some very technical compulsory regulations with regard to drawings, which regulations can be found in the " Rules of Practice." Special printed bristolboard blanks can be purchased through almost any stationer. But what always mystified me about these blanks was: why do they say "inventor" and "attorneys," when in my Patent, Patent, Who s Got the Patent? It's a great game, according to Mr. Hoar, but you must know how to play it. Many apparently queer tricks are practised for perfectly sound reasons. Do you know: Why "most patent lawyers intentionally make several serious misprints in the application?" Under what conditions an inventor will address and mail a letter to himself? When it is advisable to make your claims broad, and when narrow? How to "smoke out a lot of prior art?" How to avoid "the danger of having your write-up construed as a dedication of your invention to the public?" This is the third article in a series of four dealing with patents in a' clear and practical manner. The other articles are "What Good Is a Patent?" in the April number; "What Can Be Patented?", last month; and "Miscellaneous Considerations," to appear in Radio Broadcast for July.; — The Editor.