OK I need some help with this. How do I get a patent for a fishing lure. I do know I can't tell what it is until I do some legal stuff. Any help would be appreciated.



------------------
Marty
www.steelheader.net
marty@steelheader.net

Howdy Marty,
This might not pertain, but I learned in the music industry of the "poor man's patent". A tape or CD of your original song get's sent to you (from you) via registered mail, then remain's unopened in a secure location. It's not the real thing, but is admissible in court if an infringment occur's before a real patent# can be obtained. Take care.

Lots of money and lots of good lawyers,Infringement means nothing to the big boys and thier team of lawyers. The system doesen't work for average joe worker who wants to get a patent and keep it. To much greed.

Have you tried contacting a patent office they'll send you all the info you need.

------------------
Bob Dawson

A friend of mine patented a fishing lure several years ago. If you want to call him email me and I'll give you his phone number. I'm sure he went all the way with it. fp

Contact 'Johnnycoho', a frequent poster on this board. He invented John's Jigs several years back and looked into the process.

Browse the past few weeks for one of his posts. He posts fairly often. Good Luck.

Hey Marty, just saw your post and of coarse I had to check it out. Yes, I indeed did apply for a patent on "John's Jigs" being advised I probably wouldn't get it but during the waiting process I'd at least have patent pending rights. Getting my foot in the door before anyone could copy my idea.
Fishing lures of any kind are very hard to patent I was told. If its an idea someone else could come with on their own down the road I was told it isn't a patentable item.
You can talk with the patent attorney I used out of Mercer Island, his name is Robert M. Stormwick, # is (206) 232-2687. Not sure for sure if the # is still the same, this was 5 years ago. First they'll have you fill out a "Invention Disclosure Form" :...Title Of Invention, Inventorship / Ownership, a 25 word description of what problem is solved by your invention, Application of Invention, Prior Solutions, Search Data to make sure someone else hasn't previously attempted to make the same invention, Drawings of Invention, Description of drawings, Advantages of this invention, Alternative Solutions to your invention, & Witness Records that have witnessed this invention as yours and know how it works. (Taken From Patent Form I Was given)
Cost to me was out of pocket close to 3 grand. Good luck Marty let me know how it turns out. You've already got my E-Mail address and I still owe you a trip on the Sauk so drop me a line. J---<")(\(\)>{

Yikes!!! Three grand is a chunk of change not to get the patent. I bought a couple of do it yourself patent guides. Hopefully I can get it done cheaper or maybe I should just sell it to one of the tackle manufacturers for royalties. Sorry I couldn't make it up there, will keep trying. My thanks to everybody for the information and help.

Tight Lines


------------------
Marty
www.steelheader.net
marty@steelheader.net

I used to work at a business assistance center helping entrepreneurs with their inventions. We would help them by doing an evaluation of the product by utilizing three outside confidential evaluators familiar with the industry. The process helped the inventor determine whether or not to proceed with their project in some instances. Regarding the patent process, I will simply add this. You may well receive a patent in the future. However, someone may look at your product and be able to make enough changes to it that the folks who review patent applications in WA DC think that those changes are significant enough to warrent issuing another patent. The true test of whether or not your product idea is worth getting a patent is looking at how many you are going to sell if that is your objective. You mentioned that you might just get a tackle company to take your idea nad get royalties. In very very few instances do companies tend to take on a new product that has not been market tested. If you can produce and sell say 1,000 of these lures then you might have a better chance of getting them to take on your lure. They tend to have extensive R&D departments that do their product testing. Even if you show it to a company you might want to consult that attorney mentioned and draw up a non-disclosure agreement. Something that each party signs stating that they will not use the information contained in the disclosure without your permission.

Unless this is revolutionary in design you might just want to produce them and get a bunch sold and not worry about the patent first. Continue to work on it, but I would hazard a guess that some of your ideas were born from the experiences you have gained using other products and retrofitting them to your likes. You can also go and do a complete search for patents on a database at a library that is classified as a depository for federal documents etc. Spokane and Seattle public libraries have them available as well as the University of Idaho in Moscow, ID. You will spend a bunch of time pouring through the documentation.

Good luck!