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The Law Office of Joan I. Norek |
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Intellectual Property |
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Chicago, Illinois |
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About Disclosure Documents what they are, what they are not
self-filing information or access the USPTO disclosure document program page or USPTO inventor resources page. Disclosure documents are:
What they are not (what they do not do):
What happens to them:
Short-lived evidence A disclosure document provides little to no evidence of anything unless it still exists. The USPTO cannot certify the receipt date and content after it has been destroyed, and it will be destroyed two years after receipt unless a patent application referencing it in a separate letter has been filed before the two years have elapsed.
Poor Man’s Patent No such thing. None of the “mail-it-to-yourself” or other gimmicks will provide an ounce of protection. Do not waste your time (or anyone else’s) if you rely on such a gimmick and then see someone else out there selling what you think is yours. It isn’t yours because you have done nothing to secure proprietary rights to it.
Grace Period Any public use or sale in this country, or publication anywhere in the world, more than one year before the filing of a U.S. patent application, destroys the possibility of obtaining patent protection. In other words, let one year elapse from the first date of public use, sale, and/or publication, and you are statutorily barred from seeking patent protection. Publication includes showing it and/or describing it on a website. Most foreign countries have no such grace periods. Relying on the U.S. one-year grace period will destroy almost all potential for patent protection in countries other than the U.S. The one year statutory limit is absolutely strictly enforced. There are no hardship exceptions. If someone else files a patent application to the same invention while you are enjoying your one-year grace period, that person will have an earlier filing date. You will be the junior party in any interference proceeding between the two applications.
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