How to Invent and Protect Your Invention: A Guide to Patents for Scientists and Engineers

CHAPTER 11. TRANSLATING IDEAS INTO ECONOMIC REWARD

1. What are two of the major costs of filing a patent?

2. How does the America Invents Act decrease the cost of patenting for small businesses, universities, and independent inventors?

3. Why should a patent holder consider abandoning a patent?

4. What three types of assessment should an inventor perform before patenting an invention?

5. An inventor hires an independent researcher to replicate his results and to optimize his process for more efficient use in large-scale manufacturing. What type of assessment has the inventor done?

6. An inventor does an online search for other products in his field and then creates a table of competing products and prices. What type of assessment has the inventor done?

7. How can an inventor perform a rudimentary search to determine the patentability of her invention?

8. What two elements are required for trade secret protection?

9. Sometimes trade secret rights are chosen over patent rights.(Do not contrast trade secrets and patents, just answer the questions.)

a. State the advantages of trade secret rights.

b. State the disadvantages of trade secrets.

10. Jill is building a new kind of go-cart engine that will be mass-produced on an assembly line with dozens of employees. Should she patent the invention or protect it as a trade secret?

11. Ron is a chef who has developed a new method for extracting juice from pumpkins. An attorney has advised Ron that his method is patent eligible. ...