From the course: Understanding Intellectual Property (2014)

Unlock the full course today

Join today to access over 22,600 courses taught by industry experts or purchase this course individually.

Myth of the poor man's patent

Myth of the poor man's patent

From the course: Understanding Intellectual Property (2014)

Start my 1-month free trial

Myth of the poor man's patent

“

Maybe you've heard that you can mail yourself an idea in a sealed envelope, and that somehow that gives you some rights. You take your idea, you, you complete some documents, you seal it in an envelope, you mail it to yourself. It get post marked and you keep it sealed for, forever until you need it. Some people call this the poor man's patent. This is a myth. There is no poor man's patent. You get no patent rights. You get no intellectual property rights whatsoever from doing this. In fact, the very documents that are in that envelope would be inadmissible in court under the rules of evidence, because it was made in anticipation of litigation. Instead, what an inventor should do to keep track of their creation, is keep lab notebooks, have emails, keep documents on their computer that are dated, and have a story that is told through normal business records that they were involved in the invention of a product. Not mailing yourself something in the mail in a, a sealed envelope.

Contents