How to Protect an Innovative or Proprietary Design?
How to Protect an Innovative or Proprietary Design?
(OP)
I've put a great deal of time and thought into an innovative retaining wall design, and am about to implement this design for the first time on my own property. This design is my baby, unique as far as I can discern (and I've really looked) and my objective is to employ it repeatedly as a design-build subcontractor. I don't know if it is patentable, and have somewhat exhausted my finances in the development of the original project, anyway, so hiring a patent lawyer is not desirable at the moment.
I will permit the project, and will seal my drawings - but will probably label the retaining wall system as "proprietary" and leave it off the drawings. I figure my seal and a promise of a letter of acceptance upon completion of construction should get it through the permitting process. I've made some effort to keep my idea under wraps, but when it comes time to market the system, which my company would actually construct each time, what is to prevent another engineer from repeating my design, which he could easily enough derive from a visual inspection?
My design consists basically of three elements, all available separately on the market - it's just a little more complicated than the brilliant idea of taking chocolate and peanut butter and sticking them together, so there's nothing I could do to prevent someone else from simply buying the pieces and building a similar system. But any job where this system would be used would require a permit, and thus an engineer's seal in any major municipality, so I really only need to know how to protect my design from being co-opted by another engineer. Is it possible?
I will permit the project, and will seal my drawings - but will probably label the retaining wall system as "proprietary" and leave it off the drawings. I figure my seal and a promise of a letter of acceptance upon completion of construction should get it through the permitting process. I've made some effort to keep my idea under wraps, but when it comes time to market the system, which my company would actually construct each time, what is to prevent another engineer from repeating my design, which he could easily enough derive from a visual inspection?
My design consists basically of three elements, all available separately on the market - it's just a little more complicated than the brilliant idea of taking chocolate and peanut butter and sticking them together, so there's nothing I could do to prevent someone else from simply buying the pieces and building a similar system. But any job where this system would be used would require a permit, and thus an engineer's seal in any major municipality, so I really only need to know how to protect my design from being co-opted by another engineer. Is it possible?






RE: How to Protect an Innovative or Proprietary Design?
Also take a set of plans to the Post Office and have them date stamp it. It might later be used to prove that you had the idea first.!!
RE: How to Protect an Innovative or Proprietary Design?
RE: How to Protect an Innovative or Proprietary Design?
RE: How to Protect an Innovative or Proprietary Design?
RE: How to Protect an Innovative or Proprietary Design?
if you want to get something out of this, what about selling the idea to a company ? if it is that special, then people who build retaining walls will want a cheaper/better solution. first get a non-disclosure agreement.
RE: How to Protect an Innovative or Proprietary Design?
RE: How to Protect an Innovative or Proprietary Design?
In some ways a patent pending give you more protection than the patent. Because, at the outset you have divulged little info. on the scheme to the public, and can say patent pending; but once you have a patent and I can get a copy of the patent, and I can work on ways to circumvent it. If you are not very careful how you craft the patent, I might get around it by just using a slight variation on one of your standard components. You might be better off to try to hide an important component or two in the details of the way you put things together; or to obscure the nifty way you do a few steps in the operation, to any but the most observant eyes.
RE: How to Protect an Innovative or Proprietary Design?
But, there is the advantage of experience - the application for which this is intended will cause the paying clients apprehension ("Will my building collapse into the giant pit below it?") that could be relieved by my being the original designer and the only experienced installer of the system.
Still, though, I can't see me getting away with it for more than 2-3 years. It's just too good.
RE: How to Protect an Innovative or Proprietary Design?
Like I said, just a thought. I'm not saying that you should ask the County to spy on everyone and tell you everyone else's ideas, just to let you know if it seems like somebody is ripping yours off. Probably a grey area and worth a few minutes consideration if you talk to a lawyer.
In any event, good luck.
RE: How to Protect an Innovative or Proprietary Design?
You'd really be surprised as to how many ideas there are that have been patented already. I know I was and I was searching in an out of the way material engineering for civil engineering applications, not something that I would have thought existed already and once a patent search was finished I was amazed....
Otherwise good luck.
Regards,
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RE: How to Protect an Innovative or Proprietary Design?
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
RE: How to Protect an Innovative or Proprietary Design?
On the other hand, some patents are awarded nationally that surely look inviable from a public domain viewpoint elsewhere, since solutions of the kind are being previously practiced with just the protection of the general intelectual property rights an author has on his work. These patents are unlikely to get any enforcement elsewhere than in the awarding country.
So if you have something of value, and if you are able to keep the secrecy about it (unlikely for anything stored in/worked with computers) quite likely the most rewarding process would be to inundate the actual inmediate market with your innovation, something that is difficult in design matters, and for products may easily require a degree of capitalization rare within individuals. So they just almost inmediately AFTER making the public apparition use to resource to some capital venture (because if BEFORE it can result in the steal of the idea). Quite difficult for individuals, these times.
RE: How to Protect an Innovative or Proprietary Design?
The moment you apply for a permit to build your very first one, you only have a year to patent it. After that and you still have not filed for a patent (whether provisional or utility), it is considered as residing in the public domain.
If money is an issue but you'd want to move forward, you best bet is to apply for a provisional patent. For provisional patent application, you don't need to divulge in detail the inner workings of your invention, just a general abstract and supporting pictures (or photo realistic 3d model). This would only give you 1 year to protect your invention. As someone already mentioned here, it's really just a placeholder so no one can jump ahead of you in securing the actual patent. If you don't apply for a utility patent before the 1 year timeline expires, you lose the right to patent your invention and no one else can apply to patent it, as your invention would now be considered part of the public domain.
Your question about people ripping off your invention, I think you are getting ahead of yourself. Think about it, if your invention is something that needs to be submitted to a building jurisdiction for a permit and a sign off from a PE; those are actually barriers to entry. The population for would be patent violators of your invention is really small. Also, I'd like to think that the ethical standard of PE's is higher than an average person although some would definitely try. Corporations would only come in and would try to circumvent you patent if you're making a killing. It's just the nature of the beast, if your invention is really marketable and if there's money to be made. Until you're generating huge amount of revenues, I wouldn't worry about it.
Your greatest risk right now is inadvertently divulging your invention to a 3rd party (like transmitting the plans to a fabricator without an NDA, publishing it where the public can view the documents, things of that nature) and not knowing that your 1 year countdown has already started by doing so.
That's why you need to get a lawyer. The initial consultation is typically free or at very minimal cost. Make a list of all possible questions that you can come up with and try to squeeze them all into that 1st meeting.