Indiana Inventors Association

The interpretation of dreams is a great art. - Paracelsus Where would we be without both imagination and experience?  As inventors, we dream of a better world and interpret our dreams as ideas that can make our world better.  As innovators, we translate those ideas into products and services that make the lives of our customers and investors better.  Experience guides us in both roles.  An inventor learns how to test and refine an idea by building and experiencing a working prototype (model) of the idea.  An innovator teaches initial customers and investors how to benefit from the idea by helping them experience the prototype.  Members of the Indiana Inventors Association met to discuss how to create a memorable experience, for inventors and for those they serve. With 3D printing (additive manufacturing), a copy machine instructed by a computer program (digital design) makes a variety of things ( art , batteries , body parts , clothing, jewelry, machine parts, medical de

Patent attorney Michael Hood (Brinks, Hofer, Gilson, & Lione) helped us understand what the new patent law means to inventors.  This law applies to patents and patent applications that contain a claim to an invention effectively filed on or after March 16, 2013.  United States Patent Office (USPTO) rules on how to implement the law are now available. First Inventor to File    The date of invention no longer matters.  What matters now is the date a patent application is effectively filed at a patent office.  The inventor who files first anywhere in the world gets the first opportunity to get a patent.  So a reasonable strategy is to file provisional applications early and often as you develop your invention. You may ask the USPTO to cancel or reject claims in a patent or patent application that are to your claimed invention if the named inventor did not invent, but derived from you knowledge of, the invention.   Prior Art    The USPTO issues patents only for invention