Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Massachusetts

Re: patent agents

Poor man's patent is a cute name for your little trick but nearly worthless under patent law. Obviously it establishes one fact: when the letter is opened up in the right context, for example by a judge in Court on the record (or at trial with witnesses), it establishes some evidence (assuming nobody suggests you tampered with the envelope) that you wrote what was in there on or before the date of postmark.

Patent law, unlike trade secret law, is based on disclosure; you are making a deal with the government when you get a patent: you tell them (and anyone else in the world) what you have in mind and they'll give you some measure of protection against it's use by others without paying you a royalty.

While you are making your patent application, the patent is not published and made available to the world; during that time, presumably patent agents are busy checking to see if someone already holds a patent on what you're trying to patent (and thus protect them a little bit).

Protection as "trade secret" depends on keeping the secret safe, quite the opposite. I HAVE heard of patent agents and big companies who steal ideas, though perhaps most such stories are sour grapes, I don't know. Far and away the best protection is to get either a big company to sign an NC/NDA (non-disclosure / non-compete agreement) and/or a license agreement (which includes those clauses) or a large reputable patent agent which has assets of some sort to sign an agreement of that sort before you tell them your secret.

I would like to refer you to either a certain member of the patent bar or a certain intellectual property lawyer. These are two people that I trust and would hope that you would also trust to assist you making your millions of dollars. Lawyers generally can be held accountable and they have their own jobs, not likely to steal ideas. Please contact me if you're interested.