In order to make sure that no one steals your idea, you need the intellectual property protection that a patent provides. However, patenting a product through the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) is a complicated.process. There’s no rule against writing this application yourself; but the patent office has extremely specific requirements for wording and format.

 If you don’t have experience patenting inventions, don’t understand the legal language involved, or don’t know to take advantage of a pending patent, you should not try to complete this process yourself. Even if your patent gets approved, it doesn’t guarantee invention protection. A patent application that does not effectively describe your invention can be easily worked around by competitors, diminishing the strength of your patent.

 For this reason, it is strongly recommended that you hire a lawyer when patenting your product. Even if you do write your own patent application, you should at least have it reviewed by a patent attorney. The term of your patent will last for 20 years from the day you file your application. The time in between the application filing date and the issue date is considered the “Patent Pending” phase. During this phase, you do not yet have any rights to your invention, and you cannot prosecute companies for patent infringement; however, you may still earn royalties from it.  A patent lawyer will be able to assist you with this.

 How should you go about finding an attorney in the Southwest? Calling the first attorney in the phone book is not a recommended approach. You need an attorney who will work for your best interests, not only to get your product patented but also to ensure that competitors will not be able to steal your idea. The Patent Attorney Network can help.If you would like a personalized referral or more information on invention protection in the Southwest, please visit or www.patentattorneynetwork.com. For a list of patent attorneys based in your state, click on the relevant state link below.