Inventors

Independent inventors fuel innovation, inspire investment and create new businesses and jobs. Securing patent protection, however, poses a significant hurdle for independent inventors as they try to turn an idea into a commercially viable product.  Seeing an opportunity to help, LegalCORPS started the Inventor Assistance Program, the first and longest running patent pro bono program in the United States at the request of and with encouragement from the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO).

The LegalCORPS IAP allows inventors from Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin with original ideas to overcome one of the greatest financial roadblocks to bringing new innovations to market.  We can provide assistance with U.S. patents only.

We help inventors through the process by providing an array of services for people who are just beginning to those who are further along in their journey to filing.  Our FAQs provides answers to both general patent questions and specific questions about our program. Read on to find out how we can help you with getting your invention patented.

Business legal help to low-income entrepreneurs

Ways We Can Help Inventors

Assistance Through the Patent Application Process

Requirements

For inventors seeking assistance with the patent process, the first step to accessing our service is to request an application form by emailing iap@legalcorps.org or calling (651) 583-5979 for inventors in Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota and wisc.iap@legalcorps.org for inventors in Wisconsin.

Intellectual Property Brief Advice Clinics

LegalCORPS conducts regularly scheduled free brief advice clinics, where participants can receive up to 30 minutes of free, confidential guidance for their non-litigation intellectual property issues. With virtual, phone and in person options available, you can access the information you need in the way that suits you best.Please contact iap@legalcorps.org for inventors in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota. Wisconsin inventors may contact wisc.iap@legalcorps.org to schedule a clinic appointment.

Registration Requirement

Prior to your brief advice by phone consultation, you will be required to complete an intake form. Besides providing identifying information, you will need to sign the acknowledgment of the limits of the attorney-client relationship that the brief consultation will create. For statistical purposes, LegalCORPS collects demographic information which we report in aggregate to potential funders.

Minnesota
1st Tuesday of the month from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
4th Friday of each month from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

Wisconsin
Last Thursday of the month from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Last Wednesday of the month from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in person at the Milwaukee Public Library.

All States
1st Thursday of each month from noon to 1:00 p.m.
3rd Tuesday of each month from noon to 1:00 p.m.

Educational Opportunities

Check the LegalCORPS calendar for future opportunities. Some of the regularly scheduled programs are Intellectual Property Overview, Patent Basics, and Provisional Patent Application Workshop.

Inventor Frequently Asked Questions

Here are answers to some of the questions inventors often ask about the LegalCORPS Inventor Assistance Program.

The program administrator and the case screeners need to know — in general terms — the subject matter of invention. This assists in matching an eligible inventor with an attorney with the proper technical background.

Since our patent attorneys volunteer their time to work with inventors through LegalCORPS, we are dependent on the volunteers to have resources available to take pro bono cases. Once an invention has been evaluated by our screening committee, we work to place the inventor with a volunteer but there is no guarantee of placement with an attorney. The program is not an entitlement but rather a service to the unrepresented inventors who qualify.

When an attorney is recruited for limited scope representation, LegalCORPS requires a $50 placement fee from the applicant. This is an administrative fee only and you will not have to pay for the attorney’s time.  All USPTO fees are the responsibility of the inventor. Please see this link to the USPTO fees: link to this url: https://www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/fees-and-payment/uspto-fee-schedule#Patent%20Fees

LegalCORPS needs to know if there could be questions regarding ownership of the invention. If there is some question, we might recruit a volunteer attorney who participates in other (non-patent-law) LegalCORPS programs for advice on this question before we match an eligible inventor with a patent attorney.

Companies have proprietary rights in inventions conceived by their employees during their work hours that are related to the employees’ work for the companies.

We ask all eligible inventors to sign an NDA before sharing invention details with LegalCORPS.

LegalCORPS’s scope of services does not include litigation. Our mission includes only transactional business law assistance for low-income entrepreneurs, Non-profit organizations and inventors.

A provisional patent application is less costly to file and easier to file because there is no requirement to include a portion called the ‘”claims” in this kind of filing. However, there are many requirements, including a special cover letter. See the USPTO publication “Provisional Application for Patent.”

It also is important to know that:

The life of a provisional patent application is one year. The provisional patent application is a “placeholder” to claim the benefit of the filing date for the non-provisional application.

No patent will be issued from a provisional patent application filing.

The USPTO will not examine a provisional patent application.

The inventor has one year to get a non-provisional, utility patent application on file that would claim the benefit of the earlier filing date of the provisional application.

A non-provisional, or regular utility type, patent application is more costly to file. And has many more requirements. (See http://www.uspto.gov/patents/resources/types/utility.jsp) This application must have at least one claim. A USPTO patent examiner will review this kind of application. The examiner will communicate with the person who filed the application and send out “office actions” relevant to the application.”