My understanding is that it's all this, plus you have to apply for the patent separately in all the major countries you think might want to take your idea, not forgetting that some countries don't agree with the patent laws anyway - and you have to pay to maintain them on a yearly basis... $$$
So, if you figure that you might just want to protect your main market, say the USA, and you only take out a patent there, you will have to be prepared to defend the patent should products from other countries that use your idea be sold into there - with lawyers == $$$. And that's giving up on everywhere outside the US, which might end up being a major market... Karl --- In [email protected], David Reaves <rrsou...@...> wrote: > > Benjamin is right: it's a LOT of money. > Keep in mind that if you have a idea/product that you DO intend to > patent, if you release an unpatented product to the public or simply > publicize the idea you GIVE UP any rights to patent it in the future. > > IOW, the decision whether to patent or not must be made BEFORE the > idea becomes public. Once you have applied, you have a bit more > protection; once the patent is granted you have the most protection. > For what that's worth. > > This (along with, among a multitude of other things, a clarification > of the meaning of 'trademark', 'copyright' and 'patent') is all made > very clear on the US Patent Office website: > http://www.uspto.gov/patents/basics.jsp > > Kind Regards, > David Reaves > > > On Mon Jan 25, 2010 10:18 am ((PST)) "Benjamin Ragheb" wrote: > > > > On Jan 25, 2010, at 12:28 AM, anderson oliveira wrote: > > > >> My question is. Can you patent software ideas? What is the safe way > >> to do this? Trademark? Copyright? > > > > First: I Am Not A Lawyer. > > > > Yes, you can patent a software idea, but it is expensive. You will > > need to hire a lawyer to prepare and file all the paperwork. It's > > not worth the money/time if you are indie. >
