Legal Question in Intellectual Property in North Carolina

Re: protecting an invention

Prototypes are not required. The patent application must enable one of ordinary skill in the relevant art to make the invention, so the filing of a patent application is legally deemed to constitute the equivalent of having built a prototype. This is called constructive reduction to practice.

Sending to yourself it not of much use. You need a corroborating witness and the postmaster will not testify at all, let alone to knowing that what is in the envelope now is what was in the envelope when you sent it. Better to have someone who could knowingly testify to your possession of the invention date and witness a description of the invention, so you have the required corroboration. If you disclose it to a patent attorney, get a receipt and that is probably even better because a patent attorney is ethically bound to maintain it in confidence and yet is able to corroborate your possession of the invention and advise you as to protecting it. Patent lawyers are trained to help people get patents, general lawyers are not. Patent lawyers must pass a special patent bar exam given by the US Patent and Trademark Office to be legally able to call themselves patent lawyers. The first step is to obtain a search from a qualified searcher or patent attorney to see if you are likely to get a patent, and of what scope it might be and what other similar prior ideas are patented or available. A search and patentability opinion will cost you $600 and up, depending on complexity of the invention. If the answer is that valuable coverage is available, the next step is to file a patent application...that costs about $5000-10000. Look at my website www.burdlaw.com for further information and typical fees, or look at the US Patent Office website at www.uspto.gov which has more than 2 terabytes of online information.