Information for individual inventors

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Oppedahl Patent Law Firm LLC does not encourage inquiries by individual inventors. Of the many individual inventors that our attorneys have served over the years, only a handful have ever made enough money from their inventions even to cover what we charged them. This does not mean the inventions were not good ones --- indeed we have seen some very clever and promising inventions from individual inventor clients, and we have obtained some patents for individual inventors of which we are very proud from a professional point of view. There is much in life, however, that depends on luck and being in the right place at the right time, with inventions as with anything else. For every deserving invention that makes money for its inventor, there are probably ninety-nine other very deserving inventions that happen not to fulfill their promise.

When we do accept work from a new client, we ask to be paid in advance. We put the money into an escrow account, to be applied toward later bills due. If the work we are asked to do does not use up the advance, we refund the balance. If the work we are asked to do goes beyond the amount of the advance, we expect to be paid for that additional work. Depending on the type of work and the technological area, the amount of the advance which we ask for may be anywhere from a thousand dollars to over ten thousand dollars.

What should you do next?

• If you are thinking about patents, we suggest you purchase the book Patent It Yourself! from Amazon and read it. After reading it, you might want to try writing and filing your own patent application. Alternatively, if you do choose to hire a patent and trademark firm such as ours, you can do it while being a much more knowledgeable consumer of the services of the firm. In either case, the money spent to purchase the book and the time spent reading it will all be well spent.
• If you are thinking about trademarks, we suggest you purchase the book Trademark: Legal Care for Your Business & Product Name from Amazon and read it. After reading it, you might want to try writing and filing your own trademark application. Alternatively, if you do choose to hire a patent and trademark firm such as ours, you can do it while being a much more knowledgeable consumer of the services of the firm. In either case, the money spent to purchase the book and the time spent reading it will all be well spent.
• If you are thinking about copyrights, we suggest you purchase the book The Copyright Handbook: How To Protect & Use Written Works from Amazon and read it. After reading it, you might want to try preparing and filing your own copyright application. Alternatively, if you do choose to hire a patent and trademark firm such as ours, you can do it while being a much more knowledgeable consumer of the services of the firm. In either case, the money spent to purchase the book and the time spent reading it will all be well spent.

Keep in mind that reading this page, or buying these books, does not make you a client of our firm. If, despite what we have said here, you nonetheless wish to explore whether our firm can accept you as a client, you may contact us. We emphasize that in such a contact you must not reveal anything to us of a confidential nature. We could then do a conflict check to see whether we are aware of any conflict that would prevent us from accepting you as a client. Please do not, however, waste your time and ours with such an inquiry if you are not prepared to pay for the work and indeed to advance funds to us to pay for such work.