Ronald J. Koch, P.E.

It is important to note that securing a filing date is of utmost importance. Delaying this after you conceive of the invention can result in loss of all or some of your patent rights.The law states that a person shall be entitled to a patent unless the invention was in public use or on sale in this country more than one year prior to the date of the application for patent in the United States. There is an exception to the "public use" aspect of this rule if your use was "experimental" (i.e. you were using it for the purpose of testing or modifying, etc.). There are many other legal requirements for patentability that are beyond the scope of this introduction.