IPN PROCESS

NDA and Concept Capture

Once your initial NDA form and idea or invention concept is returned and approved and you decide to become an IPN partner, the first step in the partnership process is a formal contract and NDA which documents and protects your idea throughout each of the four steps in our ideation process. After the NDA is in place we capture your initial invention concept, we review and formally benchmark the novelty of the idea and explore additional potentially patentable concepts.

Initial Invention Capture and Concept Expansion Process

The invention capture process takes place after the concept has been vetted and a formal NDA is in place. The concept capture process takes place with the client or with your team of inventors or engineers in person at any of our office locations, over the phone or by video chat.

Since you know your idea best, we work with you to capture your concept and provide additional insights, recommendations, or new utilizations to help refine your ideas potential for patentability. Once the initial idea is captured and perfected it is submitted to a law firm for a prior art search and patentability review.

Invention Prior Art Search and Patentability Review

The process for benchmarking the patentability of an idea can be completed across a number of user opt-in prior-art search processes. Because it’s your idea, we allow you to choose from several prior art search options and price ranges from a simple United States-based search to a deep multi-tiered worldwide patent and non-patent literature prior art search. We can make recommendations or allow you to choose which service, options and price points are right for your invention. A thorough prior art search is the first and one of the most vital steps in the patent application process and plays a key role in ensuring your idea is unique and innovative. We offer one of the lowest industry price points for each prior art search service and also offer our simple prior art search for inventors or companies who are looking to quickly and economically evaluate an idea’s potential patentability.

Prior Art Workarounds for Patent Novelty

The USPTO process for receiving a patent is slow and not every idea is patentable. To ensure an idea is novel it is vital to perform a prior art search around the concept. The law firm initiated prior art search may reveal that a client’s initial concept has large amounts of prior art that may appear to completely prevent the idea from being novel and patentable. While this can be discouraging, it is not the end of the line for any invention.

The process of actually receiving a patent on an invention can be frustrating and difficult, but through our proprietary invention capture and claim refinement process, we will work by your side and help you refine and perfect your patent claims and concepts and improve the potential of getting your idea through the law firm approval phase and then the USPTO patent application process.

Internal Patentability Recommendations

Once the initial concept vetting process is completed and the prior art search and law firm approval of potential patentability is completed we are able to make additional recommendations on the patentability of the initial concepts in addition to new patent families, concept modifications or additional technology recommendations to help ensure the concept and all its applications are covered in the parent patent. We charge the lowest price possible for our patentability recommendation service because we both succeed when you become a patented inventor using our proprietary process. You can also bring in your own pre-prepared 3rd party research to help supplement our cost at any phase.

Provisional Application or Product Design Filing

Once the client is comfortable with the presentation of the concepts, the claims coverage, and the patent’s embodiments, an application is filed through our in-house attorney or through the IP firm of your choice.