Raleigh NC Patent Lawyer Serving Raleigh, Durham, Cary, and Surrounding Areas

To obtain patent rights for your innovation, you need to start off with submission of a patent application of the appropriate kind to suit your needs. In general, there are two types of patent applications: provisional patent applications and non-provisional patent applications. The former are effective to establish an invention priority date if drafted property, but only a one year life. The latter comes in different forms and the patent term is either the balance of 20 years remaining from its filing date after it have been granted (for utility patents and for plant patents) or 15 years after its grant date (for design patents). There are also different kinds of patent applications that can be filed when seeking foreign patent protection that either provide more time to file in individual countries while preserving invention priority or cover a regional group of countries or individual countries. There are also ways to expedite or prioritize examination of a patent application if desired. This is why it is important to ask yourself: Do you need a Raleigh, NC patent attorney? Hess Patent Law Firm serves Raleigh, Durham, Cary, and surrounding areas. We can help you in selecting the appropriate forms of patent protection to pursue and can represent you in seeking to patent your invention. The three different kinds of patent applications that are of the non-provisional type, which Hess Patent Law Firm can prepare as applicable, are: 

Utility patent application – If a functional idea is the innovation, then a utility patent application may be appropriate for seeking protection.

Design patent application – If an ornamental design is the innovation, then a design patent application may be appropriate for seeking protection.

Plant patent application – if a novel asexually reproduced variety of plant, other than a tuber propagated plant or a plant found in an uncultivated state. is the innovation, then a plant patent application may be appropriate for seeking protection.

Patents are territorial.  A U.S. patent covers just the United States and its territories.  To seek patent protection in a foreign country, a counterpart patent application would need to be filed either in a foreign patent office or, if applicable, in a regional patent office whose region includes the foreign country. There are time constraints for filing patent applications in other countries that arise after a US patent application has been filed.  Hess Patent Law Firm can help in meeting those time constraints and in devising strategies to defer the costs for filing counterparts elsewhere or in expediting examination and approvals for such foreign counterparts provided certain criteria are met.

If you have a new solution to an old problem, you owe it to yourself to make sure your intellectual property is fully protected. An experienced innovation protection lawyer can help you in your quest to seek protection and obtain legal clearance to optimize the potential of a good idea.

At Hess Patent Law Firm in Cary, NC, attorney Robert J. Hess has been practicing intellectual property law for over 30 years. He accepts clients worldwide and nationwide. Attorney Robert J. Hess also offers international trademark and patent services and has represented clients in various countries of Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Australia. In his career, Robert J. Hess has worked with clients

If you have an innovative idea, contact attorney Robert J. Hess online or call 984-326-2807 to discuss your intellectual property rights.

The patents that Robert J. Hess has been able to secure for clients cover displays, novelty items, laser ablation, software, telecommunications, electric/hydraulic devices, timepieces, printer blades, dispensers, automobile components, mechanical/energy devices, radiopharmaceutical containers, medicinal, eye surgery/care/diagnostics, vision implants, physical therapy devices, exercise devices, sports items, fabrics, recycling/conservation/biofuel, eyewear, food items, shelves/desks, drums, fingerprint biometrics, metalworking, smoke detectors, beverage making, cosmetic applicators, femtocells, food products, radioactive waste, phacoemulsification, thin film transistors, compacting concrete, beverage machine cleaning, reversible eyewear, box dividers, pizza slice trays, self-service stations, tracking swim meets, vertical axis wind turbines, solar trackers

Robert Hess is a named inventor on the following patents and published patent applications:

• US Patent Application Publication No. US 2008290168 A1 pill printing identification
• US Patent No. US 7,370,797 B1 pill printing and identification
• US Patent No. US 7,059,526 B1 micro barcoded pill and identification/medical information retrieval
• US Patent No. US 6,799,725 B1 micro barcoded pill and identification/medical information retrieval system
• US Patent No. US 6,776,341 B1 pill printing and identification
• US Patent No. 5,992,742 pill printing and identification
• US Patent No. 5,425,642 method of spelling out a word before an audience

The following is a list of some exemplary industries followed by products in those industries that Hess Patent Law Firm obtained patents for on behalf of clients: