The Poor Man's Patent, or How to Shoot Yourself in the Foot

The urban myth is that the poor man's patent is to send yourself a sealed envelope with a description of your invention.  If Mega Corporation then comes up with the same idea, or rips off your idea, you can prove that you invented it first.  Because look, the envelope is sealed, and that proves its never been opened, right?  And it has a postmark on it to prove when it was mailed, so that's a slam dunk.  Right?

Wrong!  What this myth is centered around is that in the U.S., unlike other countries, the first person who conceives of an invention gets the patent on it.  However, that conception has to be followed by due diligence to reduce it to practice.  Filing a patent application is considered reducing it to practice.  So you can't conceive of an idea, then do nothing for 5 years, and still get the patent over a person who filed during the 5 years you were asleep.  However, there are times when you acted with due diligence, and someone still filed a patent application one day before you did.  Then you want to be able to prove when you conceived the invention.  Then whoever has the best evidence of conception gets the patent, after a long and costly contest to prove first conception.  It's far easier and cheaper to the be first to file, than to have to prove first conception. 

But if you do have to prove a date of conception, your envelope would be evidence of that.  It would be crappy evidence, but it would be evidence. The gold standard in evidence is the inventor's research book, which is a hardbound book (not 3 ring binder), with blank, numbered pages.  In it the inventor keeps a journal of the project(s), and records when he did what in ink.  It also has receipts for parts, consultant services, photos, dates phone calls were made, notes when meetings happened, who was at the meetings, and other information that relate to the invention.  Each page is also signed and dated by the inventor, and by another person (any person), who states that on a certain date, they read and understood what is written on this page.  If you want to be real AR, you could circle the text portion on each page in ink, and link the circle to the signatures, proving that no text was added after the signatures were added.  The signature could say, "Read and understood text within circle, Jan 15 2005, signed, Robert L. Shaver."

Bingo, that research book is gold, because that stuff can't be easily faked, and can be verified by other sources, and you have a witness for each page.  The other side will find it impossible to refute that evidence, even if they have a self mailed envelope.   

So if you are thinking of sending yourself a sealed envelope with your invention disclosure, know that it's not the Poor Man's Patent, its the Idiot's Patent.

Comments

[Jeffrey Diamond]

The blank book has its first page notarized as evidence that the book existed on that date.
The last (used) page is notarized below a statement by the author in affidavit form "This record began on XX date and contains the only true and complete history of Project YY. This record was completed on ZZ date".
If practical, some Counties permit the filing of such an instrument with the County Clerk under an assigned Index Number as both proof of the completion date, and a guarantee against tampering since the original cannot be retrieved.
Other additions that I incorporate in contracts, separation agreements that I prepare for clients:
Immediately below the last line of text on any page a diagonal line extends to the opposite bottom corner, signed and dated by the author. This insures that text has not been added after the signature date - standard use in police logs.

[Patricia]

Hello my name is Patricia, I am writting to you for some guideance, I have a corparate fast food idea,that would also promote their logo in a postive way, it is a much need service in the fast food drive through, that would completly accomadate the comsumer, and make customers life easier, happier, and make them a repeate customer, I have tried getting in touch direct, but the bars are up in more ways than you can imagin, no outside ideas. I am living and working on a shoe string budget, but I can sell anything, and this is a winner, and long over due.

[Ray P.]

What I have been doing as a hobby is to take left over construction parts and making unique bicycle/kayak accessories but if my idea is not quite worth the several thousand dollars it take to patent them, is there any other way to market them?

[David J.]

A work associate and I came up with an idea jointly that either one of us likely wouldn't have come up with on our own. It's not related to our work. Unbenounced to me he immediately wrote the idea down and mailed it to himself. It's a pretty good idea and there is no hint searching the internet that anyone else has thought of it. I'm kind of in the postion of trusting him at this point to share. He seems like a pretty honorable fellow but is there anything I can do in the event he claims he came up with the idea idepenently?