hacksaw variant

I am not a lawyer or patent expert, but my understanding is that once you sell something you can no longer patent it, because you have now "disclosed" it in the eyes of the patent office. Be sure to go over this with your patent attorney. The saws sound interesting, and good luck with the enterprise.

-- Regards, Carl Ijames snipped-for-privacy@verizon.net

particularly

ISTR you have a year to file from the date of disclosure in the case of a US patent, but outside the US it's generally different. IANAL.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

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Back when I was in a position to patent some things I invented (for the Government), the rule was that you had one year from initial disclosure to get the patent process started (e.g. initial filing attempt). So -- you should still have time, unless the game has changed since then.

Whether you turn up after a patent search to have something which is *not* "prior art", is a different question, and that is what will matter as to whether it can be patented.

And you want to be very careful to claim anything which you feel distinguishes your system from prior art. Many of those claims may be rejected, but those which stick may make the difference between someone being able to make a knock-off or something which can really *protect* your invention.

Good Luck, DoN.

You certainly aren't. The literature is replete with stories of two or more people contesting for a patent and the one who applied first usually gets the patent (other things being equal). The patent is often not given (or whatever the term is) until years after the items have been manufactured, sold, and in use. It should be fairly obvious that, just selling a patentable item, before applying for a patent doesn't put it into the public domain; it is just stupid. However, recent changes in patent and copyright laws may make my statement incorrect as some of the recent changes are just as obviously stupid and at odds with the basic purpose of patents and copyrights.

Carl Ijames wrote:

I checked with my patent attorney on the subject of patentability of products which have been test-marketed: the inventor has one year in which to apply for a patent after commercial exposure. This enables the inventor to guage the acceptance of the product and to get some feedback fom the public before shelling out big bucks. My attorney recommends this procedure to keep his clients from aquiring useless patents.I'm told that between 98% and 99% of all patents fail to pay back what they cost. In my opinion test-marketing before patenting can prevent a lot of grief. Walt