What Is an Intent-to-Use Trademark Application? Say you’ve landed on a great name for a business or a product, but nothing’s actually live yet. Maybe the packaging isn’t finalized, the website’s still half-built, or you’re waiting on funding before anything officially launches. Can you still file for a trademark before any of that happens? Turns … Read more
Trademark Specimen Examples for a Website Most businesses today sell through a website instead of a physical store, so it only makes sense that a lot of trademark applicants want to use their website as their specimen. Sounds simple enough in theory. In practice, the USPTO has fairly specific rules about what kind of webpage … Read more
What Is an Acceptable Trademark Specimen? At some point during the trademark filing process, you’ll run into the word “specimen,” and then, almost immediately after, a second question pops up: okay, but what actually counts as an acceptable one? It’s a fair thing to get stuck on. The USPTO isn’t just looking for any random … Read more
So you filed a provisional patent, or you’re about to, and now you’re wondering what the clock actually looks like. It’s a fair question, and honestly, it’s one that trips up a lot of first-time inventors because the answer feels almost too simple compared to everything else in the patent world. Here’s the short version … Read more
What Is a Trademark Specimen? If you’ve started filing a trademark and suddenly hit a wall over something called a “specimen,” you’re not alone. It’s one of those terms that shows up in USPTO paperwork without much explanation, and it trips up a surprising number of first-time filers. Some people assume it’s just another word … Read more
How to Check if an Idea Is Already Patented So you’ve got what feels like a genuinely good idea. Before you spend money on attorneys, drawings, or a provisional filing, there’s one question worth answering first: has someone already patented this? A lot of inventors skip this step and regret it later. Let’s walk through … Read more
What Does Patent Pending Mean? You’ve seen it before. Stamped on a product box, tucked at the bottom of a website, printed under some gadget on Amazon. Patent pending. Most people just glance past it without a second thought. But if you’re actually an inventor, or thinking about becoming one, this little phrase carries more … Read more
Can You Patent an Idea Without a Prototype? There’s a myth going around that you need to actually build your invention before filing for a patent. It stops a lot of people before they even try. Got a great idea but no working model, nothing you can physically hand someone? You might assume you’re stuck. … Read more
What Is a Provisional Patent Application? If you’ve ever talked to another inventor about protecting an idea, chances are someone mentioned “filing a provisional” at some point. It gets thrown around a lot, but a surprising number of people don’t actually know what it means, or worse, they think it’s some kind of mini patent … Read more
Can You Patent an Algorithm in the US? If you’ve built something clever, a piece of code, a formula, a way of processing data that actually works better than what’s out there, you’ve probably wondered whether you can lock it down legally. It’s a fair question. Algorithms run almost everything now, from search engines to … Read more