Patenting A Product Improvement Idea

[NorlansV]

Hello all,

I am working on improving a product, and I am pretty close to getting my first basic prototype ready soon.

Ideally, I'd like to patent it and get a licensing fee for letting distributors use my idea.

The big question is, how difficult is it to patent an improvement to a product?

This is a very basic product, being used to all hair salons all over the world.
The improvement is nothing fancy, just something of an extension to cover more of someone's body.

Does anyone have any experience with this domain?

 

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[Mason Welds]

Hello all,

I am working on improving a product, and I am pretty close to getting my first basic prototype ready soon.

Ideally, I'd like to patent it and get a licensing fee for letting distributors use my idea.

The big question is, how difficult is it to patent an improvement to a product?

This is a very basic product, being used to all hair salons all over the world.
The improvement is nothing fancy, just something of an extension to cover more of someone's body.

Does anyone have any experience with this domain?

While the product I am working on, isn't in the cosmetic industry, I've gone through the same process. I AM NOT A LAWYER OR ATTORNEY AND THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE. Without discouraging you too much, its an absolute pain in the neck to patent anything. With my product, its quite similar in that, its an improvement on other products that already exist. What i did was file for a provisional patent, which basically means you are SEMI protected against others using your idea, however you need to file for the Non-provisional (or normal) patent within a year of the filing date for the provisional. They only last a year but its good for market validation.

With that being said, I have a friend who works in patent law and they really helped me with the wording and different sections that a solid patent application have. And even after spending a month with them, getting everything dialed in, an attorney still has to look it over and make sure the patent lawyers don't reject your application because you used the word small, instead of exact dimensions, or maybe you said AND, not OR. After all of the work, the patent lawyers can easily reject your application because its too similar to the products out there today also.... Its, for a lack of a better term, a shit storm on crap mountain.

My advice, get in contact with a local patent attorney and just ask a few questions about the process. All the attorneys I've talked to have been very kind with answering basic questions and helping me understand the process.

 

[NorlansV]

While the product I am working on, isn't in the cosmetic industry, I've gone through the same process. I AM NOT A LAWYER OR ATTORNEY AND THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE. Without discouraging you too much, its an absolute pain in the neck to patent anything. With my product, its quite similar in that, its an improvement on other products that already exist. What i did was file for a provisional patent, which basically means you are SEMI protected against others using your idea, however you need to file for the Non-provisional (or normal) patent within a year of the filing date for the provisional. They only last a year but its good for market validation.

With that being said, I have a friend who works in patent law and they really helped me with the wording and different sections that a solid patent application have. And even after spending a month with them, getting everything dialed in, an attorney still has to look it over and make sure the patent lawyers don't reject your application because you used the word small, instead of exact dimensions, or maybe you said AND, not OR. After all of the work, the patent lawyers can easily reject your application because its too similar to the products out there today also.... Its, for a lack of a better term, a shit storm on crap mountain.

My advice, get in contact with a local patent attorney and just ask a few questions about the process. All the attorneys I've talked to have been very kind with answering basic questions and helping me understand the process.

Thanks a lot for your time.
Well, to clarify, it's not a cosmetic product.

I've read that it may take months to patent a product and many times you may eventually not succeed.

How is your process going so far?

 

[Mason Welds]

Thanks a lot for your time.
Well, to clarify, it's not a cosmetic product.

I've read that it may take months to patent a product and many times you may eventually not succeed.

How is your process going so far?

My apologies, I have a family member who works as a professor of Cosmetology, teaching hair styling and what not, so whenever I hear hair salon, I think cosmetology haha.

That's absolutely right and its one of the things my patent attorney told me. Something as simple as using the wrong preposition, can get your application thrown out. So finding a good patent attorney is key.

So far so good. I've been getting my provisional patent application reworked and reworded for a full non-provisional patent, so not much news right now. Just waiting.

 

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