Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

The legal standards to prove "conception" of an invention are discussed in Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) 2138.04 and Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) 715.07.  Mailing anything to yourself is not a recognized way to prove "conception." 

See http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/mpep.htm

Save yourself the stamps.  Save yourself the envelopes.  Save yourself the time.

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James Lindon, Ph.D. Patent Attorney
Lindon & Lindon, LLC
Cleveland, Ohio
Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Pharmacy Law, Litigation
[this is not legal advice - provided for discussion only]
Intellectual Property for the Individual and Small Business: Identify, Protect, Enforce, Defend.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
http://www.LindonLaw.com

Ah....<sigh>...and so another myth bites the dust. Thanks James, for putting this into its own post. All my life I`ve heard the above, about mailing to yourself, and figured it made sense so probably it was true.

let`s hope it dies a quick death.  I have issued a challenge to anybody that can provide a court case that proves otherwise - it won`t happen. 

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James Lindon, Ph.D. Patent Attorney
Lindon & Lindon, LLC
Cleveland, Ohio
Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Pharmacy Law, Litigation
[this is not legal advice - provided for discussion only]
Intellectual Property for the Individual and Small Business: Identify, Protect, Enforce, Defend.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
http://www.LindonLaw.com

here is a rationale:  if the federal government is going to give you a legally important "date" it wants you to mail the proof of conception to THEM with a CHECK instead of to yourself.  That way, THEY get paid.  It`s the basic pay-to-play rule.  Also, mailing to THEM provides a sort of archive that is not as subject to the game playing that might be involved in mailing to yourself [steaming and resealing the envelope, etc.]

Folks, if you want something that the gubment is going to recognize and enforce in gubment courts, you gotta play by gubment rules.  There is no law saying you have to file a patent application each time you invent something.  If you want legally recognized rights, you will either learn and follow the rules or hire somebody to do it for you.  If it is not important to you, that`s cool too.  Keep using magic envelopes, non-disclosure agreements, safety deposit boxes, etc - there is nothing wrong with any of that - it just won`t help you to stop somebody from copying you.

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James Lindon, Ph.D. Patent Attorney
Lindon & Lindon, LLC
Cleveland, Ohio
Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Pharmacy Law, Litigation
[this is not legal advice - provided for discussion only]
Intellectual Property for the Individual and Small Business: Identify, Protect, Enforce, Defend.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
http://www.LindonLaw.com

Ah....the old "follow the money" logic. That`s a really good point, about how although you could prove conception in an objective universe (where people agree that the US Mail is unaffected), so what? If you can`t enforce that proof, it means nothing. Enforcement being the utilization of the enforcement system, which includes the court system.

That`s a really interesting point of philosophy, not only the law. But then, the law is where most of philosophy has been staying alive these days, as the academic philosophers have abdicated all responsibility.

I`ve held that the only responsibilities of a gub`ment are to:

• Convene a military
• Maintain a monetary system
• Enforce contracts

The order in which those take priority leads to very different forms of society, but that`s a different topic. The enforcement of contracts requires a system of law, without which there would be no contracts, per sé. Yes, we make contracts person to person, but a legal system steps in when people break those contracts.

Some would say the gub`ment is also there to enforce morality. A better expression is that the legal code is the minimum requirements of behavior for a citizen in the society. I dunno...I could see it, but a "citizen" chooses to contract with a society to abide by certain standards. So the "contract" point would semantically apply.

It comes down to how much anyone values enforcement. Technically, then, is it true that we can indeed "prove" conception through a self-mailed item, but that such proof is practically meaningless in any enforcement situation?

It goes even further than that.  Note that "who invented it first" only really comes up when BOTH parties have actually filed a patent application and are arguing about priority.  If you are not going to file the application in a timely fashion, you should probably take your postage on the mail-to-yourself envelope and put it towards a cup of coffee.  Without an issued patent, there is nothing to enforce.

"I thought of it first" is meaningless, since thinking of something first does not get your anything.  Lots of people THOUGHT about the light bulb before it was invented and patented - it`s called DREAMING.

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James Lindon, Ph.D. Patent Attorney
Lindon & Lindon, LLC
Cleveland, Ohio
Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Pharmacy Law, Litigation
[this is not legal advice - provided for discussion only]
Intellectual Property for the Individual and Small Business: Identify, Protect, Enforce, Defend.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
http://www.LindonLaw.com