How would I get a patent on a cleaning product that I have invented?

Question

I recently came up with a product that will clean just about anything and it's made from all natural products. It's safe for kids, animals, even pregnant women! How would I get a patent on it? Also, how could I find out if someone else might already have a patent on the same thing?

Answer 1

Interesting product! Don't show it publicly before getting the patent(s) because you'll exclude yourself from registration.

Assuming you're in the US, you want the US Patent and Trademark Office at http://www.uspto.gov and go from there. You can probably check the patent registry for identical products yourself, but given this is a chemical formula you might consider hiring a patent agent for that.

In Canada the governing body is CIPO.

Answer 2

Start your search at http://www.uspto.gov/index.html

You want to give careful consideration to marketing though.  What are you going to call it?  Trademark that name first.  Patents on formulations can be tricky because someone can copy it and patent that formula.  The power is in being FIRST and a trademark on the product name......lots of colas....only one COKE or PEPSI.

I am in this process myself and it is fun and interesting.  DO NOT talk to anyone about it until you have trademarked the product name and then only talk to the people you have to.  Sorry to say but there is not a lot of integrity out there when it comes to this kind of thing.

Jeff

http://www.yourwayoutcoach.com