PATENTS
I. Introduction
The Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel IP Information Center provides a brief overview of several important topics relating to patent, trademark and copyright law. In addition, the IP Information Center addresses issues relating to trade secrets and intellectual property litigation. You may access information relating to these topics by clicking on the appropriate links.
This section is aimed at addressing the most common issues an inventor faces when seeking to protect an invention or enforce a patent. This section will provide you with practical information relating to the complex patent system and focus on the questions most frequently asked by inventors.
II. Attorney-Client Confidentiality
Many times the very first question we are asked by inventors is "How can I be sure you are not going to take my idea and use it without my permission?" Sometimes inventors will ask us to sign a confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement. We understand and respect your concerns. After all, you have likely invested a great deal of your time, energy and hopes into your invention.
As attorneys, we are bound by the law and professional rules of ethics to keep disclosures relating to your invention confidential. That means you can feel confident that we will not take your invention, we will not misuse your invention, and we will not disclose your invention to anyone without your permission. Because others are not bound by the same laws and ethical rules that attorneys are bound by, you should not disclose your invention to anyone other than your lawyer without obtaining an agreement of confidentiality until you consult with your lawyer.
For more information on disclosing your invention, go to Section XVIII relating to Non-Disclosure and Confidentiality Agreements.
III. Nature of Patent Rights
The patent laws of the United States provide for three general types of patents: (1) utility patents; (2) design patents; and (3) plant patents. A utility patent is issued to the inventor of any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof.
A design patent is issued to the inventor of an original design of a useful article of manufacture, which makes the article distinctive in appearance.
A plant patent is issued to the inventor of a novel, asexually reproduced variety of plant, other than a tuber-propagated plant. Asexual reproduction means "without seeds." It includes "grafting", for example.
Most patents we discuss with inventors are utility patents. A utility patent may be viewed as a contract between the inventor and the United States government, acting through the Patent and Trademark Office ("PTO"). When the PTO issues or grants a utility patent to an inventor, it gives the inventor some control over the use of the invention for a limited period of time. Specifically, the inventor is given the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the invention in the United States.
In return for these rights, the inventor must disclose to the PTO (and eventually the public) how to make and practice the invention. In addition, the inventor must disclose the best mode for making and practicing the invention known at the time of filing the patent application for the invention.
Utility patents and plant patents have a term beginning on the issue date and ending 20 years after the filing date. Design patents have a term of fourteen years from the issue date.
Maintenance fees must be paid for utility patents in order to maintain the patent for the entire term.
IV. Deadlines for Filing Patent Applications
In the United States, an inventor must file a patent application within one year of the first of the following events:
(a) a public use or disclosure of the invention
(b) a sale or offer for sale of the invention
(c) a printed publication which includes a description of the invention.
Certain exceptions to these deadlines exist. For example, an experimental use of the invention does not start the clock ticking on the one year deadline.
By contrast, most foreign countries do not permit an inventor to wait one year before filing a patent application. In these foreign countries, a patent application must be filed before the first public use or disclosure of the invention, the first sale or offer for sale of the invention, and before the first printed publication which includes a description of the invention. If any of these events occurs before the filing of a patent application, the inventor will be barred from filing a patent application in these foreign countries. One exception to the absolute bar in these foreign countries is that an inventor may file a patent application in the United States before the first public use or disclosure of the invention, the first sale or offer for sale of the invention and the first printed publication which includes a description of the invention. If the foreign country is a signatory to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the United States patent application will provide the inventor with a period of twelve months in which to file a companion patent application in the foreign country. Such a companion application will obtain the benefit of the U.S. filing date.
V. Proving the Date of Invention
In the United States, if two inventors attempt to patent the same invention, the inventor who first conceived the invention is entitled to patent protection provided he or she diligently reduced the invention to practice. By contrast, in most foreign countries, if two inventors attempt to patent the same invention, the first to file his or her patent application is entitled to patent protection. Consequently, in the United States, it is critical that the inventor documents and maintains detailed records relating to the conception of the invention and the diligence exercised in reducing the invention to practice. Inventors should keep written records such as a notebook or a journal documenting the conception and development of the invention, and each page of the written records should be signed and dated by the inventor and witnesses who understand the invention. Ideally, the signatures of the inventor and the witnesses should be notarized.
In addition, the PTO has adopted a mechanism for establishing evidence of the date of invention. The Disclosure Document Deposit Program permits an inventor establish a date by which the invention was made by filing with the PTO two copies of a written description and drawings of the invention, together with a small fee. The PTO will maintain the written description and drawings of the invention confidential for a period of two years. It is critical to note, however, that submitting a written description and drawings of your invention to the PTO's Disclosure Document Deposit Program only provides you with evidence of the date of invention. It does not toll or extend any of the filing deadlines discussed in Section IV, and it does not grant the inventor any patent rights.
VI. Why You Should Promptly File Your Patent Application
While the United States is not a country in which only the first to file a patent application is entitled to patent protection, there are several reasons why you should file your patent application as promptly as possible. First, under United States patent law, there is a legal presumption that the first to file a patent application is the first inventor. If you are the second or subsequent applicant to file a patent application for an invention, you have the burden of proving that you were the first to invent. As discussed in Section V, in order to prove that you were the first to invent, you must prove that you were the first to conceive the invention and that you diligently reduced the invention to practice. In addition, it is important to promptly file your patent application because there are several statutory deadlines for filing a patent application in the United States as discussed in Section IV.
VII. What is Patentable?
According to United States patent law, patentable subject matter for a utility patent includes processes, machines, manufactures, or compositions of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereon. Recently, United States patent law has recognized certain methods of doing business as patentable subject matter. The apparatus or method of the invention must also be novel, useful, and non-obvious. The "novelty" requirement means that the invention must be new. The "useful" requirement means that the invention must have a useful purpose. The "non-obvious" requirement means that the differences between the invention and what was previously known (the prior art) must not have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the technical field to which the invention relates at the time of the invention. The "prior art" that may be used to determine whether an invention is obvious includes patents, printed publications, public uses and commercial sales and offers for sale.
Ideas are not per se patentable. Physical embodiments of ideas, however, may be patentable. In general, the structure of your invention must be patentable in view of the prior art in order to obtain utility patent protection. A new use of an already known structure is generally not patentable. However, an invention that solves an existing problem in a new way, permits a task to be performed more easily and less expensively, eliminates a step in a known process, simplifies the construction of a device, improves productivity, etc., may be entitled to patent protection.
VIII. Patent Searches
Typically, we recommend that the first step toward obtaining patent protection is to conduct a patent search. If a patent search is desired, we will prepare a letter with the inventor's assistance describing the invention, the problems the invention overcomes, and how the invention overcomes these problems. We send this letter to a professional patent search company located in Alexandria, Virginia (the site of the PTO), and the search company will perform a patent search for the patents most closely related to your invention. In addition, the search company may discuss your invention with an Examiner at the PTO who would be likely to examine an application like yours in order to determine which prior art references are most closely related to your invention. Of course, we require that the patent search company maintain your invention in strict confidence.
After identifying the patents most closely related to your invention, the search company sends those patents to us. We carefully review these patents and provide you with a written opinion letter summarizing the patents and outlining our reasoning relating to our opinion of the patentability of your invention. The patent search is an invaluable step in the process of obtaining patent protection because the search enables us to determine whether your invention appears to be patentable. In addition, in the event that we determine your invention may be patentable, the patent search will be used to assist us in drafting a patent application that will avoid the prior art.
IX. The Patent Application
According to former United States Supreme Court Justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes, "[a] patent is the most complex legal document there is." Consequently, the patent application which results in an issued patent must be carefully drafted. There are several statutory requirements relating to patent applications. For example, a patent application must particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter the inventor regards as the invention. In addition, a patent application must enable one having ordinary skill in the technical field to which the invention relates to make and use the invention. A patent application must also disclose the best mode known by the inventor to make and use the invention.
A typical utility patent application includes the following:
1. Title of the invention
2. Cross-references to related patent applications, if any
3. Field of the invention
4. Background and description of the prior art
5. Advantages of the invention
6. Explanation of technical terms
7. Summary of the invention
8. Brief description of the drawings
9. Description of the preferred embodiments of the invention
10. Claims
11. Abstract of the disclosure
12. Drawings;
13. Oath or declaration of the inventor
14. Information disclosure statement
15. Non-publication request
16. Application data sheet
17. Filing fee.
The claims of the invention are particularly important. The claims define the scope of protection provided by the patent. Claims are written in a style unfamiliar to most who are not patent attorneys, and as a result, they should not be drafted by anyone without experience in preparing patent claims. Claims should be drafted as broadly as possible in order to provide the inventor with the greatest degree of protection against potential infringers.
X. Patent Pending and Patent Marking
As soon as a patent application is filed with the PTO, the applicant may mark his or her product (or product packaging) with the notation "Patent Pending". While marking a product with the notation "Patent Pending" does not provide any legal protection, it will often discourage competitors from copying the invention. Falsely marking a product as "Patent Pending" may subject the false marker to sanctions.
After a patent issues, the patentee should mark the product or the product packaging with a notation indicating the United States patent number assigned to the patent covering the product or any part of the product. Properly marking your product may entitle you to recover damages for patent infringement.
XI. Patent Office Procedure
After a patent application is filed in the PTO, it is assigned to a group art unit and a patent examiner. It is the examiner's responsibility to thoroughly search for the prior art relevant to the patent application. After this examination, the examiner may allow all of the claims in the application, reject all the claims in the application, or allow some claims and reject the other claims based upon the prior art. In addition, the examiner may make objections to the patent application based upon the formal requirements of United States patent law.
If an examiner rejects one or more of the claims in a patent application, the applicant may decide to contest those rejections. If the applicant decides to contest one or more of the examiner's rejections, the applicant may submit arguments and/or claim amendments to the examiner which demonstrate the patentability of the invention compared to the prior art. In the alternative, the applicant may decide not to contest the examiner's rejections and simply permit the allowed claims to be issued, or the application to lapse.
Sometimes an examiner refuses to allow a claim to which the applicant believes he or she is entitled. In these circumstances, the applicant may appeal the examiner's rejection to the Board of Patent Appeals and Interference. In such a case, the PTO assigns an attorney to handle the dispute, and a more conventional adversarial process begins. If the applicant disagrees with the decision of the Board of Patent Appeals and Interference, an appeal of the Board's decision may be taken to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit or the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. If the applicant is still not satisfied with the court's decision, he or she may ultimately appeal all the way to the United States Supreme Court.
This process described above is generally referred to as patent prosecution. Patent prosecution is similar to an adversary proceeding between the PTO and the applicant. On one side, the PTO seeks to ensure that the applicant's invention is entitled to patent protection in the United States. On the other side, the applicant seeks to obtain the broadest possible patent protection for the invention.
XII. Cost of a Patent
The cost of filing and prosecuting a patent application varies depending on factors like the complexity of the invention and the number of rejections and objections made by the Patent Office. However, the costs of conducting a patent search, preparing and filing a patent application, prosecuting a patent application, and maintaining a patent is spread out over a period of several years.
XIII. Value of a Patent
In general, the value of a patent is measured by the value of the invention it defines. There are many ways to derive value from patents such as selling the rights to your patent or licensing certain rights covered by your patent. In addition, a strong patent or portfolio of patents may provide your business with a competitive advantage in the marketplace based on your ability to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the patented invention. Your company's patent or patent portfolio may also be an important factor in the valuation of your business and may provide collateral for financing. In addition, your patent or patent portfolio may provide certain intangible value such as prestige in your industry and positive publicity.
XIV. Patent Licensing
As mentioned in Section XIII, licensing is one way to derive value from your patent. Patent license agreements provide inventors with any number of options for deriving value from their patent, including a lump sum payment, royalty payments based upon future sales of the invention, minimum royalty requirements, minimum production requirements, etc.
XV. Foreign Patents
A United States patent gives the patentee the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale or importing the invention only in the United States. A United States Patent does not provide the patentee with any protection in any foreign country.
While almost all foreign countries have patent laws to protect inventors, foreign patent laws vary widely from country to country. In general, European countries, Japan and many Far East countries require that a patent application be filed before any public use, commercial sale or offer for sale or printed publication describing the invention is disclosed. In most foreign countries, an inventor may file a patent application either in the foreign country or in the United States prior to any public use or disclosure, commercial sale or offer for sale or printed publication which describes the invention. In foreign countries that are signatories to the Paris Convention Treaty, if you file a patent application in the United States first, you will then have one year within which to file a companion patent application in the foreign country.
Alternatively, an inventor may file a patent application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty in the United States Patent & Trademark Office, and designate those countries in which you desire to obtain patent protection.
Consequently, if you are considering foreign protection for your invention, you must file a patent application in the United States or in the foreign country in which you seek protection before you make any public use, commercial sale or offer for sale, or printed publication describing your invention.
The cost of obtaining foreign patent protection can be very high. In addition to the cost of preparing and filing patent applications in foreign countries, most foreign countries charge additional fees for a patent search and the examination of the patent application. Further, in most foreign countries, maintenance fees are due annually beginning from the date on which the patent application is filed.
XVI. Related Intellectual Property Issues
Inventors who seek and obtain patent protection often have questions and concerns relating to other intellectual property issues. For example, the inventor of a new product will often give a name to the new product or a name to the new company established to bring the product to market. The names of the inventor's new product and company may be entitled to trademark protection. If those names are registered as a trademark, the trademark owner may be entitled to damages for trademark infringement in the event that someone else uses those names without the trademark owner's authorization. In addition, the inventor of a new product may develop descriptive literature relating to the new product, and this literature may be entitled to copyright protection. Again, if this material is registered as a copyright, the copyright owner may be entitled to damages against someone who copies the literature without the copyright owner's authorization. Further, the inventor of a patented product may develop certain know-how relating to the manufacture of the product. This know-how may be better protected as a trade secret rather than as a patented process or device, because the term of a patent expires twenty years from the date of filing the patent application, while trade secrets may be maintained and protected forever. Finally, the owner of a patent may discover that someone is infringing the patent. In such a case, the patent owner may send the infringing party a cease and desist letter or file a lawsuit against the infringing party.
Please see our links related to trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and intellectual property litigation for more information.
XVII. Frequently Asked Questions about Patents
1. What is a patent?
A patent is a grant made by the government to an inventor giving the inventor the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale or importing the patented invention for a limited period of time.
2. What is a utility patent?
A utility patent is issued to the inventor of any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof.
3. What is a design patent?
A design patent is issued to the inventor of an original design of a useful article of manufacture which makes the article distinctive in appearance.
4. What is a plant patent?
A plant patent is issued to the inventor of a novel and asexually-reproduced variety of plant, other than a tuber-propagated plant.
5. How do I get a patent?
In order to obtain a U.S. patent, a patent application must be filed in the United States Patent & Trademark Office ("PTO"). An applicant must demonstrate that the invention claimed in the patent application is novel, useful and non-obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to which the invention pertains at the time of the invention. In addition, the invention must not have been publicly used or disclosed, described in a printed publication, sold or offered for sale more than one year prior to the filing date of the application.
6. How much does a patent application cost?
Typically, the cost of preparing a U.S. patent application directed to a simple, mechanical device will be in the range of $4,000.00-$6,000.00. The cost of preparing a patent application for a more complex mechanical device, electrical or electronic devices, computer software, complex business methods and other complex technologies can range upward from $6,000.00 to $10,000.00, or more. In addition, the PTO requires a filing fee, and formal drawings from a professional draftsman will eventually be required at a rate of approximately $100 per sheet. The PTO will also require an issue fee after claims have been allowed, and maintenance fees during the term of the patent.
Foreign patent protection is generally more expensive to obtain and maintain than U. S. patent protection.
The cost of filing and prosecuting a patent application varies depending on factors like the complexity of the invention and the number of rejections and objections made by the Patent Office. However, the costs of conducting a patent search, preparing and filing a patent application, prosecuting a patent application, and maintaining a patent is spread out over a period of several years.
7. What happens after I file a patent application?
After a patent application is filed in the PTO, it is assigned to a group art unit and a patent examiner. It is the examiner's responsibility to thoroughly search for the prior art relevant to the patent application. After this examination, the examiner may allow all of the claims in the application, reject all the claims in the application, or allow some claims and reject the other claims based upon the prior art. In addition, the examiner may make objections to the patent application based upon the formal requirements of United States patent law.
If an examiner rejects one or more of the claims in a patent application, the applicant may decide to contest those rejections. If the applicant decides to contest one or more of the examiner's rejections, the applicant may submit arguments and/or claim amendments to the examiner which demonstrate the patentability of the invention compared to the prior art. In the alternative, the applicant may decide not to contest the examiner's rejections and simply permit the allowed claims to be issued, or the application to lapse.
Sometimes an examiner refuses to allow a claim to which the applicant believes he or she is entitled. In these circumstances, the applicant may appeal the examiner's rejection to the Board of Patent Appeals and Interference. In such a case, the PTO assigns an attorney to handle the dispute, and a more conventional adversarial process begins. If the applicant disagrees with the decision of the Board of Patent Appeals and Interference, an appeal of the Board's decision may be taken to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit or the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. If the applicant is still not satisfied with the court's decision, he or she may ultimately appeal all the way to the United States Supreme Court.
This process described above is generally referred to as patent prosecution. Patent prosecution is similar to an adversary proceeding between the PTO and the applicant. On one side, the PTO seeks to ensure that the applicant’s invention is entitled to patent protection in the United States. On the other side, the applicant seeks to obtain the broadest possible patent protection for the invention.
8. How much does the prosecution of a patent application cost?
One or more claims of most patent applications are initially rejected by the Examiner in the PTO's first response to a patent application. The PTO's responses to your patent application (e.g., rejections, objections, allowances) are called Office Actions. Because each Office Action can vary so dramatically from another, we typically charge the inventor for the time it takes us to prepare the responses and amendments at our hourly rate.
9. What does non-obvious mean?
Non-obvious means that the differences between the invention and the prior art must not have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the technical field to which the invention relates at the time of the invention. In other words, the differences between the invention and the prior art must be more than obvious differences. The prior art that may be used to determine whether an invention is obvious includes patents, printed publications, public uses and commercial sales and offers for sale.
10. What does "patent pending" mean?
As soon as a patent application is filed with the PTO, the applicant may mark his or her product (or product packaging) with the notation "Patent Pending". While marking a product with the notation "Patent Pending" does not provide any legal protection, it will often discourage competitors from copying the invention. Falsely marking a product as "Patent Pending" may subject the false marker to sanctions.
11. How long does it take to get a patent?
For most utility patents directed to mechanical devices or methods, the patent prosecution typically takes approximately 24 months. Fore more complex inventions and business methods, the patent prosecution can take more than 36 months.
12. How long does a patent last?
Utility patents and plant patents have a term beginning on the date of issue and ending 20 years after the filing date. Design patents have a term of fourteen years from the issue date.
13. Is there anything I should do before filing a patent application?
We almost always recommend that a professional patent search be conducted before filing a patent application. There are at least two good reasons for conducting a professional patent search prior to filing a patent application. The first reason is that conducting a professional patent search may save you the thousands of dollars you would spend on a patent application that may not define a patentable invention. The search will likely tell us if your invention is not patentable. The second reason is that a professional patent search will assist us in preparing a patent application that provides you with the greatest possible patent protection while still avoiding the prior art. Without a search, your patent application may not claim the full extent of the patent protection available for your invention, or it may define your invention in a way such that it may be rejected based upon prior art that is not known to us.
14. What is a patent search?
Typically, we recommend that the first step toward obtaining patent protection is to conduct a patent search. If a patent search is advisable, we will prepare a letter with the inventor's assistance describing the invention, the problems the invention overcomes, and how the invention overcomes these problems. We send this letter to a professional patent search company located in Alexandria, Virginia (the site of the PTO), and the search company performs a patent search for the patents most closely related to your invention. In addition, our search company may discuss your invention with an Examiner at the PTO who would be likely to examine an application like yours in order to determine which prior art references are most closely related to your invention. Of course, we require that the patent search company maintain your invention in strict confidence.
After identifying the patents most closely related to your invention, the search company sends those patents to us. We carefully review these patents and provide you with a written opinion letter summarizing the patents and outlining our reasoning relating to the patentability of your invention. The patent search is an invaluable step in the process of obtaining patent protection because the search enables us to determine whether your invention appears to be patentable. In addition, in the event that we determine your invention may be patentable, the patent search will be used to assist us in drafting a patent application that will avoid the prior art.
15. How much does a patent search cost?
Typically, the patent search company charges us between $400 and $600 to identify the patents most closely related to your invention. We charge you for the time it takes us to prepare the letter describing your invention to the search company, the time it takes us to review the patents identified by the search company and the time it takes us to prepare a written opinion letter summarizing the patents identified by the search company and explaining our conclusion regarding the patentability of your invention. The total fee for the typical patent search including the search company's fee may be around $1,500.00.
16. How can I be sure that your firm will keep my invention confidential?
Many times the very first question we are asked by inventors is "How can I be sure you are not going to take my idea and use it without my permission?" Sometimes inventors will ask us to sign a confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement. We understand and respect your concerns. After all, you have likely invested a great deal of your time, energy and hopes into your invention.
As attorneys, we are bound by the law and professional rules of ethics to keep disclosures relating to your invention confidential. That means you can feel confident that we will not take your invention, we will not misuse your invention, and we will not disclose your invention to anyone without your permission. Because others are not bound by the same laws and ethical rules that attorneys are bound by, you should not disclose your invention to anyone other than your lawyer without obtaining an agreement of confidentiality until you consult with your lawyer.
For more information on disclosing your invention, go to Section XVIII relating to Non-Disclosure and Confidentiality Agreements.
17. What information does your firm need from me to prepare a patent application?
Initially, we need a detailed written description of the invention and drawings of the invention. The drawings do not need to be professionally prepared or to scale, and we do not need a prototype or working model of the invention.
We also ask our inventors to complete an Invention Disclosure Form which asks the inventor a series of questions aimed at describing the invention, the problems the invention overcomes, previous attempts to overcome these problems, disadvantages of the previous attempts to overcome the problems, and how the invention overcomes these problems. In addition, our Invention Disclosure Form asks the inventor to provide information relating to certain critical data and the inventors.
18. Can I conduct my own patent search on the PTO's web site?
You can conduct your own patent search on the PTO's web site, and doing so is a good way to get an idea as to the patentability of your invention. However, this type of search is not a substitute for a search conducted by a professional patent search company. In addition to conducting multiple and various database searches, our professional patent search company typically consults with one or more Examiners at the PTO who will likely examine a patent application directed to an invention like yours.
19. Does a United States patent protect my invention in other countries?
A United States patent gives the patentee the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale or importing the invention only in the United States. A United States Patent does not provide the patentee with any protection in any foreign country.
While almost all foreign countries have patent laws to protect inventors, foreign patent laws vary widely from country to country. In general, European countries, Japan and many Far East countries require that a patent application be filed before any public use or disclosure, commercial sale or offer for sale or printed publication describing the invention is disclosed. In most foreign countries, an inventor may file a patent application either in the foreign country or in the United States prior to any public use or disclosure, commercial sale or offer for sale or printed publication which describes the invention. In foreign countries that are signatories to the Paris Convention Treaty, if you file a patent application in the United States first, you will then have one year within which to file a companion patent application in the foreign country, in order to obtain the benefit of your U.S. filing date.
Alternatively, an inventor may file a patent application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty in the United States Patent & Trademark Office.
Consequently, if you are considering foreign protection for your invention, you must file a patent application in the United States or in the foreign country in which you seek protection before you make any public use or disclosure, commercial sale or offer for sale, or printed publication describing your invention.
The cost of obtaining foreign patent protection can be very expensive. In addition to the cost of preparing and filing patent applications in foreign countries, most foreign countries charge additional fees for a patent search and the examination of the patent application. Further, in most foreign countries, maintenance fees are due annually beginning from the date on which the patent application is filed.
XVIII. Non-Disclosure and Confidentiality Agreements
Non-Disclosure and Confidentiality Agreements are contracts which prevent another person or entity from disclosing your invention or some other confidential information as defined by the Agreement. The scope of the information protected by a Non-Disclosure or Confidentiality Agreement may vary greatly so it is important for your attorney to prepare, or at least review, the Agreement before you disclose your invention or other confidential information. A Non-Disclosure or Confidentiality Agreement should be signed by anyone other than your attorney to whom you plan to disclose your invention or other confidential information before you disclose the invention or other confidential information.
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