Many People when they think of Inventors, Albert Einstein or Thomas Edison comes to mind. What many potential millionaires fail to understand is that anyone with a UNIQUE idea can get a patent as long as they are the first person in the world to invent it!... and file it at the Patent Office.

Of course there are guidelines and the United States Patent Office USPTO.gov exists to govern the awarding of patents that exist to safeguard your ideas otherwise refered to as "Intellectual Property".

There are 3 types of Patents..

1. Utility Patent, one that has a function
2. Design Patent, based on look and feel of your idea
3. Plant Patent, rarely issued to independent inventors

You also may have heard of something called a "PROVISIONAL PATENT APPLICATION" but this is actually NOT a patent, it is never examined by a patent examiner. It is like a date holder.  It gives you "Patent Pending" status for one year BUT you must file for a Utility patent by the end of that year or you lose your priority filing date...

A FEW THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• You should only reveal your ideas to a licensed Patent Attorney prior to getting patent protection...
• All Patent attornies do NOT produce the same results, You get what you pay for, THERE ARE NO SHORT CUTS!
• the Patenting Process is LONG, the average time to get a patenbt granted or denied is 24 months!
• The Patent Process is EXPENSIVE, it take MANY ours to write a GOOD patent application and you should have a lawyer do it!
• Only 3 people can write a patent application...1) an attorney liscensed by the USPTO...2) a Patent Agent liscensed by the USPTO ...3) YOU! but think of it this way if you needed your tonsils out would you do it yourself? Coincedently, the phone just rang and it was an inventor wanting to hire Attorney Steven Leavitt YouInventIt.com because he wrote his own application and it was rejected and he is now about to lose his invention...TRUE!!!
• Just because someone is advertising on Television doesn't mean they are not a scam!  You should do your homework before giving your hard earned money to anyone.. Go to Inventored.com....FTC.gov Where are they gettig this advertising money?  FROM YOUR POCKET!
• Attornies generally do not register with the Better Business Bureu because the are bound by the rules of their state bar association which is far stricture than the BBB!
• You can get a patent on an improvement to something that already exists as longas your idea "creates an unexpected  result" but you still might have to pay royalties to the original invention owner that you inmproved upon...

If you are thinking about hiring someone to help you with your invention and want to avoid being scammed I suggest you purchase the e-booklet 101 Things to Know about PATENTS & How NOT 2b SCAMMED available in  my ebay store www.stores.ebay.com/PHUN4YOU2 or if you would like answeres to 90 of the most commonly asked questions visit YouInventIT.com or if you would like to speak directlly to a law office contact Attorney Steven B. Leavitt L.L.P. toll free 1.877.279.3003...

Also you can listen to the radio program "Entrepreneur Magazine's Inventions,Patents & beyond..." or "You InventIt...We Protect It!" live or archived by going to wsRADIO.com... over 100 episodes about all kinds of Intellectual Property topics you can download to your computer and listen to anytime you want or call in with a question live Thursdays 2pm eastern 11am pacific...

PLEASE NOTE: The author is NOT an attorney and is only offering her opinion from her personal experiences and NOT LEGAL ADVISE!!  Under no circumstance is she speaking for any lawyer or company  mentioned in this guide..