Protecting your ingenuity

[excessa]

Hey guys, in my travels and talks with stunters one thing has become very clear, and it's something I can help with. You all are some ingenius bastids when it comes to improving the stuntability of your bikes and other relevant and off the wall inventions have come from you all.

If you come up with a modification that is original or an improvement on an original, I can help you to capitalize on that, and retain the rights to your idea so no one else sees it and markets it themselves.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard "I invented that *insert item here* and now so and so is making a mint off producing and selling it." :mad

I've had that happen to me and the patent process can be a big fat *****, as well as mad expensive. Due to my real job, I have provisional patent forms and up to date patent filing forms so you can skip the lawyer. A provisional patent buys you a year of proprietary rights, costs $150, and is a very simple form to fill out. It allows you to manufacture and sell your item for one full year protected by a "patent pending". This helps to establish you as the proprietor and purveyor of whatever you've created, as well as affording you the opportunity to make enough money off of it to afford to patent it when the year is up. When you go to get the real patent, showing you've been making it under a provisional patent helps discourage anyone who came after you from trying to dispute the rights to your idea.

If you ever need the forms, or help dealing with the process, I am available and have a patent atty I can talk to anytime for trickier stuff.

I'd like to see your ideas protected. In fact, if SL wants to host the forms for download, I'll post them up when I get back home from brunch.

I've never been so impressed by peoples motivation as I am by stunters. If you have any issue trademarking logos etc, or getting patents, I've been through it. I'm by no means an expert, but if I can help I will. SOmetimes I think I have more ability to help than I do, but this is right inside my field of experience, so there it is. Start protecting your intellectual property, because there are outside interests keeping an eye on the marketable aspects of stunting, and I don't want to see any of you putting money in someone elses pocket that rightfully should be yours.

And if you don't feel like manufacturing and retailing, you can still protect your ideas and license them to people who would otherwise just take those ideas. There's no reason why you shouldn't get paid, and if it's something you use and benefit from, then it's worth patenting and distributing.

Anyhow, for what it's worth, this is one way I can have your back, and it'd make me feel really good to be able to benefit the sport in some way.

Man I can't shut up. No more coffee for me.

[FrankieG]

I need at least 3!!!!! ASAP!

[Armenian]

good lookin out rebecca

The only thing i invent are different ways of modifying casts so u can still ride with broken bones LOL.

[excessa]

Hey I'm back, let me hook this up.

[excessa]

Here's a link to the updated provisional patent cover sheet linked directly from th4e US patent and Trademark office. I recall filling out one other document for provisionals, it's been a while. I'm going to poke around, they may have streamlined the process.

http://www.uspto.gov/web/forms/sb0016.pdf

If the site isn't working right (uspto sometimes lags) let me know and I'll get them to you from my files.

[excessa]

from USPTO provisional patent guidelines. read carefully, this is how you do it...

Provisional Application for Patent Filing Date Requirements
The provisional application must be made in the name(s) of all of the inventor(s). It can be filed up to one year following the date of first sale, offer for sale, public use, or publication of the invention. (These pre-filing disclosures, although protected in the United States, may preclude patenting in foreign countries.)

A filing date will be accorded to a provisional application only when it contains:

a written description of the invention, complying with all requirements of 35 U.S.C. §112 1st paragraph and
any drawings necessary to understand the invention, complying with 35 U.S.C. §113.
If either of these items are missing or incomplete, no filing date will be accorded to the provisional application.

To be complete, a provisional application must also include the filing fee and a cover sheet identifying:

the application as a provisional application for patent;
the name(s) of all inventors;
inventor residence(s);
title of the invention;
name and registration number of attorney or agent and docket number (if applicable);
correspondence address; and
any US Government agency that has a property interest in the application.
Form PTO/SB/16, available on the printable forms page of the USPTO website at http://www.uspto.gov/web/forms/index.html may be used as the cover sheet for a provisional application.

Filing Fee
Fees are subject to change. The current fee for a provisional application for patent can be found on the fee page. USPTO Contact Center (UCC) customer service representatives are available Monday through Friday (except Federal holidays) at 800-786-9199 to provide fee information. Payment by check or money order must be made payable to "Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office".

Mail the provisional application and filing fee to:

Commissioner for Patents
P. O. Box 1450
Alexandria, VA 22313-1450

This information is general in nature and is not meant to substitute for advice provided by a patent practitioner. Applicants unfamiliar with the requirements of US patent law and procedures should consult an attorney or agent registered to practice before the USPTO.

taken from this helpful but boring page...

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/provapp.htm

If you need help with the process I'm around. They make it seem more confusing than it is, which I suspect is just a way to discourage people from trying to do this stuff for themselves. Makes $ for the patent attorneys I guess.

[DURTY]

Originally Posted by excessa

Man I can't shut up. No more coffee for me.

ILL GIVE U A HUGE REASON TO SHUT UP!!!

[excessa]

No you will not you Durty man.

[excessa]

Oooh, Durty is scared to come back and PW my thread.

Because he knows I'll smack the hair off his head. Oh, wait God already beat me to it. dang.

[DURTY]

Originally Posted by excessa

Oooh, Durty is scared to come back and PW my thread.

Because he knows I'll smack the hair off his head. Oh, wait God already beat me to it. dang.

listen babe god didnt beat u to nothing ur too quick even for him..........so when r u gonna cum smack the hair off my nutz??

[excessa]

You've been smacken 'em so much no one else can get near
them. I heard your right hand wore them out so bad the left hand didn't even want any.

[DURTY]

Originally Posted by excessa

You've been smacken 'em so much no one else can get near
them. I heard your right hand wore them out so bad the left hand didn't even want any.

U of all people could best describe my PIMP hand, after all uve been smacked by it on a few occasions!!!!!

[excessa]

Was that your pimp hand? I thought it was nothing.

[322efonic]

Originally Posted by excessa

Was that your pimp hand? I thought it was nothing.

ha i have to belive you really prob didnt even realize he had his whole hand in you.... is it really that loose?

[DURTY]

Originally Posted by excessa

Was that your pimp hand? I thought it was nothing.

well after 50 years of being batered..........i wouldnt feel it anymore also!!!! :YEAH

[excessa]

Originally Posted by 322efonic

ha i have to belive you really prob didnt even realize he had his whole hand in you.... is it really that loose?

I have trouble believeing your retarded mind is capable of comprehending sarcasm.

[322efonic]

Originally Posted by excessa

I have trouble believeing your retarded mind is capable of comprehending sarcasm.

huh whatd you say i cant read large words did you say sarcasm

[DURTY]

Originally Posted by excessa

I have trouble believeing your retarded mind is capable of comprehending sarcasm.

weres the respose to me???? u runnin from ur OWN thread?

[excessa]

Originally Posted by DURTY

well after 50 years of being batered..........i wouldnt feel it anymore also!!!! :YEAH

I'm not battered, my man likes to eat his woman plain.

Sorrry I forgot we were pwing my thread.

[322efonic]

yes and who cares if your man doesnt like mustard or relish on his hot dogs