Patent It Yourself: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Filing at the U.S. Patent Office Twenty first Edition

Helped my tremendously, and I got my first patent!!

I'm working on writing my own patent applications. A patent attorney I'm acquainted with said to buy this book. I bought the Kindle version so I could have it immediately. I would prefer the hard copy so I could take notes and flip back and forth a little easier. Nonetheless, this is an excellent book written by patent attorneys. It treats the reader with the confidence that he can navigate the confusing waters of patent law. It is repetitive in many places, but that helps to reinforce the importance of crossing your T's and dotting your I's when dealing with the USPTO. For the inventor who is serious about writing his own patent applications, you need this book.

I have FINALLY read this thing from cover to cover (skimming 4 of the chapters which weren't important right now). There is some really good information in this book. Although, there is still a lot of it that hasn't been completely updated for the new patent laws (and ONLY the friggin new patent laws). That irritates me as that is why I waited over a year for this to be published for that reason ONLY. Who cares about the old laws...waste of time reading about something that simply doesn't exist anymore (given ALL the reading you will have to do on this to begin with)!Now when it comes to the one-year grace period, be careful. I am left confused after reading this book (on that subject) and you could loose your patent rights depending on what is the ACTUAL CASE in the new laws (haven't researched that much yet because with PPA's being so cheap and the fact that you can put several inventions in ONE PPA, having that one year pre-PPA grace period may not be that important). Furthermore, some chapters contradict other chapters on that subject, so who knows what the actual law is on that...so if you are curious about what the actual status of the one year grace period actually is, research the issue on the PTO for a final verdict.Otherwise, most of the information seems quite helpful and useful if you are interesting in either filing a PPA yourself, filing a RPA (regular patent application) yourself, or just preparing yourself before talking to a patent attorney.I wish I had read this book before talking to my patent attorney back in 2002...I didn't even know provisional patents EXISTED! I would have really taken advantage of the informal PPA back then (and saved myself $5,000) if I had known THAT (especially given the string of events which were to follow... meaning that I threw that money down a drain, whereas I could have saved it with a PPA).In any event, I wish they had a short companion version of this so you could read the most important stuff in it and refer to the main book for more detail on subjects that are important to you!I do recommend that you read Nolo's "patent-pending in 24 hours" as well (perhaps first like I did).

I used this book to rewrite my patent application after my first draft was torn to shreds (figuratively speaking) and would have cost me $10K to have the patent lawyer rewrite for me, using the book I was able to rewrite it and then have the lawyer review and submit. Ended up saving ~$8500 and learned a lot about patent law in the process. Highly recommend.

A very up to date, detailed but readable guide on preparing, 'prosecuting', protecting and exploiting your patent idea in the US.Good coverage of physical US 'utility' patents and also software patents.It covers all recent changes to the US system to fall into line with the generally accepted international 'first to file' approach, but also covers the pre-AIA rules on 'first to invent'.This is the main problem with the book for a first-time inventor is that it covers too many irrelevant details.A first-time inventor should buy the excellent "Patent Pending in 24 Hours" from the same publishers which actually does exactly what it says in the title.A seasoned inventor, with several existing patents in various stages of maturity will find this book all he/she needs to understand all eventualities.Brian

Thank you

Before you hire a patent attorney, get this book and read a few chapters. I would not try and get a patent without an attorney, but I would not want to work with a patent attorney without first getting and reading the first chapters of this book.Patents cost thousands of dollars and most (95% or more) never make enough money to recover their costs. This book will either convince you to avoid wasting money on a patent, or it will help you get better value for your money when you hire a patent attorney.

I did most of my research on the internet, so I knew most of the information in this book. But, if you do not do much searching on the internet, then this book is perfect. It has everything right there in one place. I think that they need to update the book because they talk about writing everything down in a journal, but now there is the first to patent. Just do some research a bit and this book will help with technical writing!