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Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur
One of the quickest, cheapest and easiest ways to protect your patentable ideas is whats called a 'poor mans' copywrite.
Take a copy of all of your documentation and put it into an envolope and then go to the post office and have them postmark across each seal of the envelope. As long as the seal remains intact, that envelope becomes a legal sealed and dated document that could be used to prove that you had the idea first.
Many people use this form of copywrite to protect themselves while going through the patent process.
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That really is more of an urban legend than a practical idea. See
http://www.snopes.com/legal/postmark.asp
What is done in industry is to keep a written notebook where each page is dated, signed by you and by a witness. The witness is important. This counts as a legal document as well.
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A patent merely gives its owner [temporary] ownership of a product or process. Nothing makes that owner prevent others from using it. All it does is forbid others from profiting from it without the owner's permission.
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Technically, this isn't quite true. A patent gives you the right to prevent others from using whether or not they make a profit. Practically though, a company isn't going to sue you for infringement unless you are making a profit or have taken business away from them - why spend the money on litigation unless it saves the company money or allows them to sue for damages.