Questions on the patent process

I don't have a game idea, but I do have a couple of other non-gaming related things I've been working on over the past few years. I know some of you have gone through the patent process and I have read the previous posts about provisional patents, and I was hoping that some of you might post your experiences and suggestions.

Did you do it on your own, partially on your own, or just hand it all over to a patent attorney?

Are there any resources online, such as forums or web sites, that you would suggest as good places to read through?

Are there any thing(s) you would or wouldn't do in the same way if you had to do it all over again?

Any other tips and trips, or traps to watch out for?

Thanks!

Quote: PaulEWog

I don't have a game idea, but I do have a couple of other non-gaming related things I've been working on over the past few years. I know some of you have gone through the patent process and I have read the previous posts about provisional patents, and I was hoping that some of you might post your experiences and suggestions.

Did you do it on your own, partially on your own, or just hand it all over to a patent attorney?

Are there any resources online, such as forums or web sites, that you would suggest as good places to read through?

Are there any thing(s) you would or wouldn't do in the same way if you had to do it all over again?

Any other tips and trips, or traps to watch out for?

Thanks!

These days, I do most of my drafting myself. But I've done a lot of patent drafting at this stage. When I first got started, I sort of wrote down in lay terms what I wanted to invent and then handed it over to a patent attorney to put into a patent. It's complicated -- you shouldn't try to write your own patent unless you know what you're doing, especially given the current rules and laws around what's patentable and what's not. If you have invented a tangible thing you're probably okay, but casino games aren't tangible things.

It also depends on how involved you want to be in the process and how much you care to learn about it. It's like hiring any other professional -- they specialize, you don't. How much of that specialized knowledge do you want to acquire vs. outsource? (I could change my own oil if I wanted to, but I prefer to pay a mechanic to do it, etc.)

My advice for those who want to be involved in the process to a reasonable degree:
1) Read "Patent It Yourself" by Nolo Press, and then:
2) Hire a patent attorney for your first invention, and tell him/her that you want to spend extra time going through the process so you can become better at drafting patents down the road.

My advice for those who don't want the process knowledge is simpler:
1) Hire a patent attorney.

All that said, and every single one of my patents was filed through an attorney. I spend a lot less than most new inventors do because the bulk of the the time I would normally pay for (specification drafting) I now handle myself. But I always pay for a thorough review, especially of claims. If you don't have solid claim language, your patent is mostly worthless even if it gets issued.

1) Read "Patent It Yourself" by Nolo Press, I second that suggestion.

Some new streamlined patent procedures have been announced recently.
If there any real value to the invention definitely read up on the process but do retain an experienced patent attorney. And above all steer clear of these WeHelpUPatent firms that just take your money and give you a pretty certificate that is worthless.
Patent attorneys are expensive. Sometimes the only thing more expensive than hiring a patent attorney is not hiring a patent attorney.

Thanks for the tips from everyone, they are much appreciated. I'm familiar with Nolo and found one of their other publications to be quite beneficial so I'll definitely pick up a copy of that. While I think there is a potential for high value, you never really know until you try...

One of the things I was wondering but didn't see addressed is how easy/hard/available is it to search through patent records for similar things? I can't imagine anything worse than spending a lot of time and money to prepare everything only to find its already in the books. It seemed to me to make sense to do at least some rough searches as one of the first steps to make sure I wasn't wasting my time.

Patent searching isn't that hard - you just need to know how. The USPTO's site has instructions on how to use their "Advanced" search functionality. It's a boolean-like search syntax. Google Patents is good too. For real examples, go to the PAIR system and look at how the actual Examiners do searches. They file their search strategies as part of the office action process.