This manuscript and all information contained herein is copyright material and cannot be republished by any means in whole or in part (including but not limited to printing in other works, internet sites, advertisements, etc. except for use on search engines etc.) Since it is my goal to assist inventors with little or no experience in the procurement of patents, I do allow copies to be made and distributed if done without fee or charge of any kind. Any copying, republishing, or redistributing of any part of this document for the purpose of financial gain will be treated as a violation of copyright law and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Disclaimer
The procurement of patents and other business practices described in this manuscript are extremely involved and many legal requirements and stipulations apply. Furthermore, there are many serious financial risks associated with the same and professional assistance should be sought before proceeding with any idea or counsel in this manuscript. While the information contained in this is true to the best of my knowledge, I do not profess to be completely adequate on consulting with the comprehensiveness that is necessary to be successful in these or other matters. Professional legal and other consultation is completely advised. For this reason neither I nor White Knight Fluid Handling, Inc., can be held responsible for damages claimed in full or part from following directives of this manuscript and the information contained herein should only be considered as how I perceive these things after having been involved in the business practices that I have in the past.
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About Author And Family Business
John M. Simmons was born to Jack Simmons and the former Sharen Ann Denney in Salt Lake City, Utah August 8th 1964. He grew up in West Jordan, Utah and through his childhood and early adult years his parents taught him and his five brothers and sisters to work in the family yard care business, Simmons Professional Lawn Grooming. Summer vacations and after school time were spent learning to work and run a business. John graduated from Bingham High School in 1982 and later served a religious mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. John studied manufacturing engineering at Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho during the 1986-87 school year and went to work for CBM, a small machine shop in Salt Lake City after the school year finished.
In the spring of 1988 John married his wife Amy in the Jordan River LDS temple. That fall John and Amy borrowed $7000 from a friend and purchased one small machine tool which they set up in John's father Jack's garage. A & J Machine began to do business in October of 1988. As the new company expanded beyond the boundaries of the garage, new space was rented and the company continued to grow and eventually incorporated. During the course of the next several years John's brother Tom started his own machine shop and Jack and Sharen, their parents, also started their own machine shop to work in the winter months when there was no work in the yard care business.
In 1995 the three machine shops were combined under A & J Machine with equal ownership between Jack, John, and Tom. White Knight Pumps and Fittings Incorporated was also started to market the products which Jack, John and Tom had developed. In July, 1995 both companies were relocated to Hemlock, Michigan and a younger brother David assisted in much of the engineering evolution of the products while studying mechanical engineering at a local college. At the time of the writing of this paper David is currently serving a two year religious mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Okayama, Japan.
White Knight Pumps and Fittings Incorporated received world wide recognition at the 1997 biannual Dupont Plunkett Awards Ceremony. The Plunkett awards recognize and are presented to select companies for the most innovative uses of Teflon®. White Knight was awarded third place in the Americas for the invention of Pneumatic Logic®, a patented shifting mechanism used for air distribution in White Knight chemical pumps.
John and Tom Simmons co-own five U.S. patents along with having multiple other foreign and domestic patents pending. Jack, John, and Tom also co-own multiple foreign and domestic trade marks. Jack, John, and Tom preside over the privately held corporations of A & J Machine and White Knight. A & J Machine manufactures machined parts for several U.S. companies and White Knight markets chemical distribution products in the U.S. and many foreign countries.
Jack, John, and Tom currently reside in Michigan with their respective families.
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Forward
From the time I started working in a machine shop I always had a keen interest in invention and always considered myself a sort of “weekend warrior” inventor. As do most other people who have had inventions, whether they pursued them or not, I always thought; “Now I need to get a patent.” But where to start?
I knew several other people who had pursued patent protection, even a couple who had succeeded in receiving patents. But I soon found that those I knew who had patents didn't seem to know much about the extent of their coverage or for that matter, much about patents in general. The one thing I kept hearing was that patents were expensive, especially if acquired through a patent attorney.
I was perplexed, and with all of my first inventions just left them in the closet to be miraculously resurrected one day when they would make me rich and famous. As we pursued the products which we now sell through White Knight however, I realized that patent protection would be a necessity. We had already extended years of work and tens of thousands of dollars into the research and development of our products. Now we had to decide if we should spend the additional money for patent protection and continue onward for a chance at a large return or if we should throw in the proverbial towel, admit defeat, and join the ranks of those who say “I once had an idea that would have made me millions, but I never did anything with it and now “ACME” sells zillions of my invention and somebody else got rich”. We decided to keep rolling the dice.
As I began the quest for patent protection I began by wandering aimlessly and wishing that I could find someone who had been down the same road who could share with me the vast amounts of knowledge which they had accumulated in their pursuit. Sure, I was inundated with advertisements on “how to get a patent” many of which were placed by some quasi criminal patent attorney who would zap you for all the money that they could and then leave you with nothing to show for it, or a patent which had virtually no coverage. The traps to take money from inventors were everywhere and looking back in retrospect, I can only say that it was but for the grace of God that I was not snared. That is not to say that I did not spend vast amounts of money in areas which I should not have and would not have had I known then what I know now. I did. The only consolation was that I was not devoured by the pack of hungry wolves which relentlessly pursue those who begin the quest but don't know how to proceed.
Eventually I did get a reputable patent attorney but there were many decisions which I had to make as to which parts of my invention to patent, which countries to pursue coverage in, how far to push appeals on patent claim rejection etc. “If I Had Only Known” is the exact summation of the feelings that I have as I contemplate the tens of thousands of dollars that I would have saved if I had known then what I know now.
It is my attempt to pass on the pertinent information that I have learned on how to work at protecting an invention while advancing to and while in the market place. Keep in mind that trying to “protect” is one idea, “successfully defending” is another subject entirely. Nothing you can ever do can guarantee complete security for your invention or yourself. Inventing and invention protection always has been and will continue to be a gamble, and as a wise man once said, “Never gamble more than you can afford to lose”.
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A Word Of Caution
Throughout the entire manuscript I constantly and repeatedly recommend the use of legal counsel, advice and representation. These things are expensive. Reputable legal counsel, advice and representation are even more expensive. There's a lot to be said for the old adage: “You get what you pay for”. Seek out references and investigate potential legal persons and or firms. You will spend a lot of money in this area. You need to get a lot in return.
It is legal to do many of these things in pursuit of a patent or other product protection without legal representation and it is less expensive. If I am correct, it is also legal to perform brain surgery on yourself and it is less expensive than hiring a trained professional, but I really wouldn't recommend it.
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Who Owns Your Idea?
Most companies, especially those which research and develop new products require at least their engineers (and many times all employees) to sign over to the company all rights for ideas on products (and/or procedures) at least in the particular professional field in which the company operates. Some companies are even bolder and claim rights to all marketable ideas of their own employees. In most cases these agreements are in effect for five (sometimes ten or more) years after the employee leaves the company's employ. In these situations the company has purchased in advance (by providing employment and salary) any ideas which the employee will have. The reason for the agreement dating past time of employment is to keep employees from selling out to the competition or from undercutting the company. Before pursuing protection or advancement of an invention be sure of your standing with your current and past employers. If you have signed away invention ownership rights have an attorney review the contracts which you have signed before proceeding. In the future, always understand what you are giving up before you sign away any of your rights. Most companies are only trying to protect their own best interests and do not maliciously enforce these agreements when an employee is just changing companies and is not taking proprietary information to the competition, or is not becoming the competition. Always remember though, if you have signed your rights away to another you are at their mercy. Extreme care should be taken before you as a human being and especially as a citizen of the United States of America sign over any of your rights to someone else and legal counsel should be sought in any such agreement.
I once had a salesperson who met with an engineer from a company which produces micro chips
in an effort to convince him of the advantages of our chemical pump and why he should use
it instead of one of our competitor's pumps. After the meeting my sales person related this
story to me. Throughout the meeting the engineer was very receptive and clearly understood
the operational advantages of our pump. It seemed he completely understood the type of pump which we were selling. After the meeting he said, “It's nice to see that there's a company that's going to beat out those dirty so-and-sos from X company”. “Why do you say that” asked my sales person? “I designed that pump” was the reply. The engineer then pulled
from his filing cabinet a folder full of early sketches and drawings from one of my competitors pumps. He then related a story of how he had gone to a machine shop which his company used to build parts and told them of his new idea. The dilemma was that the engineer
had signed over rights for his ideas to his employer and would receive no
further compensation for this revolutionary new product. He told the machine shop that he would give them the drawings and help them with further engineering if they would provide the research and development, patent funding, and whatever else it took to get the product to market. The machine shop was told that nothing could be done in the engineers name or his employer would be able to gain the rights to the product through suit. The machine shop owner quickly agreed
and the deal was on. After a year or so of work from both parties the pump was ready for market. From the time that the pump hit the market, the engineer was no longer consulted, contacted, or included. Had he given the idea to whom it rightfully belonged (his employer) at least he would have received the recognition in the
company and his name on the patent, both of which could have
advanced him in the company or in pursuit of other employment. As it was, he was left with absolutely nothing. If he made claims to having designed the product the only thing that it would have given him was the ability to convince any potential employer that he was dishonest.
I guess that there really is no “honor among thieves”.
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You Have An Idea That You Own The Rights To. What Next?
KYMS. That is, Keep Your Mouth Shut. There are three real reasons to invent something. Though not in any order of priority as all people have different motives and priorities, here are the reasons. The first is for money. Almost everyone has had an idea that they were going to make a zillion dollars with. More honorably, the second reason is to make the world a better place, to make life easier or better for others or ourselves. The third reason is the ugly one. Pride. We want people to think that we are intelligent and we want them to recognize us. Pride has been the reason for the loss of more things of value than any other one thing in this world. Pride can set you up to lose your idea to another who would pursue your idea ahead of you. Pride would lead you to continue to dump money into an idea which is going nowhere and is really not that much of an advancement over current products, but because it is your idea, you must succeed. Not only do you feel the need to succeed, but to excel, and no price is too high. Do not let pride rob you of that which is yours. The only one of these three reasons to discuss your idea with another before it's protection is pride. Recognize this significant truth and protect yourself with the only weapon available for the defeat of pride, this being humility.
The first step in protecting your idea is to broaden your idea into every realm that you can imagine. For instance, A wheel works great on wagons, cars, bikes etc. but don't forget about applications like pulleys, gears, rollers etc. Patent protection is only as broad as the description! Next, write up an inclusive description of your invention complete with at a minimum, sketches, and preferably drawings. The next step is to set the date of origin of your idea so that you can prove that you had the idea when you say that you did. Some would say to take a description of your idea to a notary and have it notarized. While this is a good idea it is not sufficient. Make two copies of the descriptive documents, have them notarized if you desire and then place one set in an unsealed envelope for future reference. Seal up the other set in an envelope (keep both sets identical to avoid future confusion). Use a permanent tape to seal up all seams and seals of the envelope. Write on the outside of your envelopes a name of your invention, perhaps on a corner or other non interfering position. This will help you to identify specific inventions with out opening envelopes when you have several sealed envelopes containing ideas in the future. Take your sealed envelope to the U.S. Post Office. Have the clerk date stamp the tape / envelope seals in several places then send the envelope back to yourself REGISTERED MAIL. The date stamps and postage cancellation are legal government generated proof of date as long as you can prove that the envelope was never opened until appearing in court.
After securing date protection you may find it necessary to discuss your invention with a few professional people such as machine shops (who could give you prices for building prototypes), Market analyzers, who would help you to understand whether or not your invention can compete in the market, or others who could render professional advice. Before discussing your idea with anyone, have them sign a nondisclosure non compete agreement. Your attorney should have a copy which you can use. The basics of this agreement say that the other party will not compete against you or disclose to any one else your invention (which is briefly described in the agreement) unless he can legally prove that he had the same idea before you did (such proof could conceivably be provided in the same manner which you dated your invention by use of the mail or by other legal means). This agreement allows you to seek advice while disclosing necessary information with relative safety. Many nondisclosure non compete agreements used are bilateral. That is to say that both parties are protected as they disclose confidential and or proprietary information. As with any legal document, be sure of what you sign. It's never a bad idea to have your attorney glance over these documents and counsel you before you sign. Keep all signed copies of non disclosure non compete agreements in a safe place with your other important legal documents.
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What Can Be Patented?
The U.S. patent office states that three conditions must be satisfied before a patent is awarded.
The first condition is novelty. Basically this has two parts to it. First, you are accomplishing something which has never been accomplished before. Second, you are accomplishing it by a means which has never been used to do something else before.
The second condition is that the invention must be “useful” which has degraded in definition to “To be able to be used for a good purpose”. Probably the most famous case involving the meeting of this condition was the patenting of the slot machine. The slot machine was denied patent coverage in it's initial submission on the grounds that it did not fulfill this criteria that is, that it could serve only bad purposes and had no good use. On appeal, the decision was overturned on the grounds that even though primary purposes of the slot machine were not good (in the eyes of the patent office) that the possibility of uses for good purposes were present (even though not likely).
The third condition which must be satisfied to allow patent coverage is non obviousness. One of the claims in one of our patents was initially denied wherein we stated that “A spool in our shuttle valve would reset by gravity because of its loose fit in its cylinder”. The patent examiner stated that in another patent similar to ours it would be obvious to reduce the spool diameter and allow reset by gravity. In order for us to gain protection in this claim we had to prove that in the other patent the valve would not work if the diameter were reduced.
One of the problems here is that a patent examiner cannot be familiar (at least well versed) on everything from jet engines to cold fusion to garden fertilizers (though it seems that a few of them seem to be quite well versed in certain forms of “natural fertilizer” or at least the distribution thereof). It becomes difficult to argue a point with someone who does not understand the subject. It is however never in your best interest to “pull the wool over” an examiners eyes not disclosing information which may keep you from getting a patent. A patent is not necessarily the final word. In court a competitor could bring to light the information showing “prior art” (or prior existence of your claim or obviousness based on another claim) and your claim would be overturned, leaving you with only the hole in your pocket that the money you spent on your patent escaped from. It is always best (and for that matter legally necessary) to submit all knowledge of prior similar art and then prove “novelty” (or difference) in the body of your patent. In this sort of an instance the examiner was aware of the other art and still felt that your idea was “novel”. Further decision by the court should not be needed.
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What Makes Up A Patent?
A “Ribbon Copy” of a patent is the original copy of a patent sent to the inventor by the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks. The contents are riveted into a card stock bond cover which states that the right of patent protection has been granted and has a gold foil embossed seal from the Patent and Trademark Office on the cover binding down two pieces of red ribbon (to give the appearance of an award) hence, the term “Ribbon Copy”. The cover is pretty impressive (for a government issued document).
Inside the front cover is a notice regarding maintenance fees and then the body of the patent document.
The front page has the patent number, bar code, and award date. Thereafter are listed the name(s) of the inventor(s), the patent application number, and the date that the patent was filed. There then follows a brief paragraph naming any related patents (for instance another patent which the current one broke off from), and then a list of field types which the patent examiner searched through to see if your invention was novel. The next section lists all other patents which the patent examiners referred back to you after their review to as being identical or similar in their claims, to the claims which you were making in your patent. The examiners of your patent are then listed along with the firm or person who submitted the patent.
The front page then has one of the main drawings used in your description and an “ abstract” which briefly describes the invention.
The next section contains the descriptive drawings of the invention. These are not just sketches, but professional, accurate drawings of your invention. There are many rules and regulations as to the size, manner, and manner of labeling of these drawings which is best left to those who professionally deal in drawings for patents. These drawings are important! I was able to broaden the claims of one of my patents because a previous inventor was incomplete in description in text and/or drawings.
The background of the invention is then described which involves a brief summation of the field of the invention and a description of the “prior art” (other similar products) and their weaknesses, setting up the reason for the need for your invention. The “Objects of The Invention” are then stated, which basically describes the solutions to problems which your invention provides.
A summary of the invention is then provided, after which each of the drawings used in the patent are given a brief description.
A “Detailed Description of the Invention” is then provided. This is an extremely involved description of the exact mechanics and operation of your invention complete with detailed references to each and every part of your invention shown in the drawings which details have been labeled with numbers for easy reference throughout the text of the description. The drawings and the description work together in an attempt to help even someone with no prior knowledge in the field to understand the exact function and mechanics of the invention.
The last section of the patent is known as “The Claims”. The claims are to your patent what your backbone is to your body. The claims, which could be one or numerous are all of the things which the patent coverage protects. In layman's terms, the claims might be thought of as a bunch of patents inside the patent. No coverage is allowed you except that which is described
in the claims regardless of what is contained in the drawings, description, or other areas of the patent. In essence and as far as your protection is concerned, your claim section is your patent. I was once referred to the “detailed description of the invention” of a patent owned by one of my competitors which the examiner said described the same thing which we were claiming in our claim section of our patent. Keep in mind that the mention of this item in his “detailed description of the invention” awarded my competitor no protection where as he had not made mention of this item in his claims. This meant that the particular item in question was
considered Public Domain and anyone could use this item in their product. As I further reviewed my competitor's patent I found that though the text was lengthy, that he had only a couple of claims which all referred to a small and barely significant section of his product. The problems resolved by the item which was protected by the claims could have been resolved in a number of other ways and many similar products did not even need that portion of his invention in their operating system. The scary part of this whole story for my competitor was that the patent probably did him more damage than good. While the coverage allowed by his patent was so weak that it did him virtually no good at all (he even later eliminated the patented item from his total invention!), he had
provided through the body of his patent text the complete description of the operation of his invention! He had given the world a detailed description of “How I Done It”. Anyone in the world could now copy his invention verbatum with the exclusion of the one patented item and compete against him in the market. Imagine all that money spent, only to do damage to yourself! He would have been much better off to have gone forward without a patent rather than disclosing all of the important operational information to anyone who could read. It makes me wonder if the fore mentioned pride was the only motive of his search for patent coverage because the only good that the patent did him was that it let him advertise that his product was protected under U.S. patent number ###.
As you can see a patent is quite an involved document. With the amount of technicalities and details involved as well as the consequences at stake, professional legal help by those who deal with these unique problems on a daily basis (though expensive) I consider necessary.
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I Have Heard That Patents Don't Really Protect An Invention, Is That True?
Due to the impressiveness of the patent cover, the official and professional appearance, and the official “pat on the back” by good ol’ Uncle Sam, I don't think that you'll ever find anyone who has received their first ribbon copy patent who was not totally taken back and overwhelmed upon the opening of the envelope. It is just such a vast amount of work and resources that is required to gain a patent that the arrival of this document gives a real illusion as to being a significant accomplishment. You are probably surprised that I would say illusion, but the truth of the matter is that there have been far more ridiculous inventions which have received patent coverage than legitimate ones. The sad counter to this fact is the number of really good inventions which can be found in the files of the Patent and Trademark Office which never made it in the market, at least before expiration of the patent. The reasons for this are countless but very real. The strongest counsel that I could ever give anyone who has just received a patent is that the battle has just begun. If your goal in the beginning was to make money, a patent is only the first of your worries. Remember, a patent does not make money for you! The only thing a patent does is attempt to (whether successful or not) stop someone else from making money. It is a defensive measure in your goal to make money and the only measures which ever advance the money making goal are offensive. “Holding ground” as accomplished in defensive business moves never wins the battle in the pursuit of money but only helps you to attempt to retain that which you already had. Such victories are valuable, but bought at a great price and many times the cost of the defense is not worth the gain.
Even sadder than patents on good inventions which never made it in the market are the very real stories which we have all heard about patents which were not strong enough to protect the inventor. You have heard on many occasions from many people, “Patents are useless, all some one has to do is make a minor modification to your design and then they can copy your idea”. This is not necessarily the case. As a patent is designed and constructed (note the use of the terms!) it should envision every possible application and “alternative embodiment” (a term used in patents to describe other ways of doing the same thing). I always, after reviewing the rough draft of one of my patents take several weeks and consider every way I could possibly circumvent the claims of my patent if I were my competitor. Don't be afraid to “take the gloves off” as you attack every weakness that your product might have. Being non critical would only result in a weaker patent. I try to think of any improvement I might make, no matter how insignificant or no matter what the cost. Though these offshoots of the idea may never be practical I include them in my patent to stop competitor from “piggy backing” on my design. You would be surprised at the improvements which come to light when you take your competitor's roll and actually try to beat your own product!
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What Happens After You Apply For A Patent?
Regardless of the patent searches which you and/or your patent attorney did before filing your patent, and no matter how right or confident you are that there is nothing close to what you are doing or how you are doing it, chances are that the first response that you get from the patent office will be a rejection of all claims. Do not become frustrated, this is normal. Now is where the real work starts though. The patent examiner ran a search by using key words which you used in your description and throughout your patent application. For instance, if you were patenting a new, special airplane wing you probably used words like lift, glide, less resistance, draft, etc. The patent examiner would run a search for these words and similar words in any other similar field of invention. The examiner would then pull copies of all the patents which seemed similar to the claims that you
were making, review them, and then write up a report about how each claim in your patent application was the same as a particular claim in the similar patent, or that it would have been an obvious change to "existing art". The copies of all patents
referred to along with the report would then be sent to you. What the patent examiner has done is put the burden of proof
back on you. It is now your job to come to understand in detail each of the patents that the examiner sent back to you. This is a long involved painstaking task, but it is rewarding in the education which you receive as you come to understand details of the field of your invention like you never understood them before. Many of the patents which you will be reviewing have long since lapsed and offer no further protection for their owners, yet a wealth of information is available for the betterment of your invention. After reviewing the competitive patents review your claims and discard any claims which you are making which over lap claims in a patent which has been returned to you. Any overlap which you find wherein your claims intrude on a patent which is still in force m eans that you would be in violation of the existing patent to produce your invention with aparati which could be ranked under the competitive patent. This means that you need to make changes in your claims and invention to circumvent the situation or you need to cut your losses and walk away from that particular idea. After complete examination of all other patents sent to you by the examiner and the removal of your claims which are no longer attainable you need to write a report to the examiner explaining in detail claim by claim what you are accomplishing that is different (and better) than the claim which you were referred to. Your patent attorney should then submit your rebuttal along with the modification to your claims to the examiner for further review. Several months later the examiner will respond again. Chances are there will be additional patents which the examiner will refer you
to in rejecting at least some of your modified claims. Again, the burden of proof lies on you and you would need to proceed as you did before. As soon as at
least one of your claims has been accepted by the examiner this means that you can get your patent. The broadness of your coverage however is determined
only by the claims which the examiner has accepted. You must then decide whether or not the offered coverage is sufficient to protect your invention from others who would compete. If the coverage will prove sufficient then there is no reason to continue to sink additional money into the patent, other than the issue of pride. Accept the coverage and move forward. Chances are though, the coverage offered you will not be adequate and you would need to continue the pursuit for additional coverage. There is a limit to the number of reviews and appeals that the patent office will accept, but this number can change, so consult your patent attorney for current conditions. There is also an appeal process which can be used wherein an independent examiner reviews the case and makes a decision. One of my patents was won on appeal. It seems that personal conflict had come up between myself or my patent attorney and the original examiner. Nothing we did convinced him and there seemed to be no logic to his denial of coverage. The appeal board was much more reasonable and coverage was allowed.
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What Rights Does A Patent Give You?
United States patent coverage is two fold. First of all, no one but the patent owner in the U.S. can produce and/or sell your patented invention. This includes exporting product built in the U.S. to another foreign market. Second, your item can not be imported for sale in the U.S. by anyone but the patent owner.
The patent grants to it's owner(s) (not necessarily the inventor) “The right to exclude others from making, using or selling the invention throughout the United States of America” for the term of the life of the patent (currently 20 years from the date of filing) “Subject to the payment of maintenance fees as provided by law”.
All of the patents that I currently own, I co-own with one other person. That is to say that the other person was equally entitled to ownership of the rights of patent coverage. In the situation in which I am involved wherein the inventors are the owners of the patent, this means that all parties named as inventors were involved to at least some extent in the development of the design of the invention. In the event that an employer (or some other person) has legal claim to the patent rights and there are multiple persons (if you were an engineer working for a partnership for example) the patent would be co-owned by the rightful owners. The inventors would still show as inventors on the patent regardless of ownership of the patent.
Patent protection is transferable. That is to say that you can sell, lease, give away, will, or otherwise transfer ownership of your patent. Remember though, you can only transfer ownership of the portion of the patent which you own. In many instances of business just as with the ownership of stock, major share holders or patent holders protect themselves with legal agreements between the owners giving first rights of purchase of transferred rights to the other owners. Such agreements usually include the way in which value of the item being sold or transferred will be determined.
In working jointly on an invention always remember that ownership is not determined by a race to the patent office. I have heard of several instances wherein one person from a team working on an invention submitted application for a patent of the joint invention without including the team mates. Courts treat this form of stealing as they do any other. If proof of inventorship, or involvement in inventorship is proved by the other parties, criminal prosecution is not only an option but a probability. Stiff fines and punishments are in place for the criminal upon the conviction of such a crime.
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What Rights Does A Patent Not Afford You?
A patent does not allow you to overlap another patent even if your invention improves the other invention. One of our patents involves the improvement of any type of threads used on any type of a cap including threaded caps used in tubing connections. About the same time that we received the patent on our thread design there were several patented plastic tubing connectors which arrived on the market which had outstanding improvements over the tubing connections which had been used in the industry up to that point. We knew that we would be able to improve the new connector designs substantially and hoped that this would allow us to jump on the band wagon and even pass up our competitors with these new tubing connectors. As we researched the legalities we found that where we would still have to do the same thing that our competitors had protected by patent so we would not be able to legally complete, even though we would have improved the product significantly. We were a bit disappointed, but looking back in retrospect, it's just as well. If we had been able to legally encroach on their connector design, then they would have conceivably been able to encroach on our thread designs claiming that they had improved our invention (and rightfully so). As it stands, in order for the best possible plastic tubing connector to be built and marketed using all of the best, state of the art technology, an agreement would have to be reached by ourselves and the others for a joint venture. The likelihood of this happening is nil as a set of molds for the tubing connectors to service the industry which we are in runs about three million dollars. Our competitors are already walking away with the tubing connector business because of their great improvements over prior designs. Why should they spend more money on new molds and split the money with us in order to continue to walk away with the business? Granted, the product would be better, but it wouldn't be a good business decision.
Patent protection does not allow you coverage on everything that you describe that you have improved throughout the body of your patent! The only coverage provided is that which is spelled out in the “claims” section of the patent.
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What About Maintenance Fees?
Maintenance fees are charged by the government at certain intervals to keep patent protection in active status. These fees and time intervals are subject to change even after you receive a patent so you need to keep informed by your patent attorney or someone else who absolutely knows and is kept aware of the changes. If maintenance fees are not paid, patent protection ceases. Keep informed! Ignorance is no excuse!
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What Is An International Patent?
Most people's understanding of an international patent is incorrect, at least mine sure was until I got knee deep into a couple of them simultaneously. There is no such thing as an all-inclusive “international patent” which affords coverage in all foreign countries simultaneously. Patent coverage must be applied for separately in each country where patent coverage is desired. There are several exceptions to this. For instance, there is a “European Pact” in which the several countries involved work jointly on the acceptance or refusal of European patent coverage. Country members of this pact can also be approached individually, but if coverage in all participant countries is desired, the pact approach is less expensive. It will be interesting to see the effects that the new coming standardized European currency (Euro) and other evolving European pacts has on patents and coverage. Chances are, attaining patent coverage in Europe will be less expensive and simpler as time goes on. The countries that are former members of the USSR also have a pact agreement.
Applying for patent coverage in foreign countries becomes extremely expensive. The patent must first be translated into the countries native language, by law firms of the foreign countries choice and then submitted through the proper legal channels by the proper representatives. Usually foreign attorneys are required and the expenses accumulating from several different countries can become staggering. Keep in mind that just because the U.S. Patent Office has agreed to allow patent coverage, it is not a given that the other countries will follow in suit. They do have the right to reject claims in full or in part. If claims are rejected you are in the same situation which you would have been in the U.S. as claims were denied. You can appeal, resubmit, etc. but if you think it's expensive in the U.S. imagine a battle like this fought through foreign language translation, long distance charges, and even possibly the chance of those officials who may not be as closely regulated as our government officials and who could be looking for “additional personal income” in exchange for certain “favors” which would advance your petition.
Some other countries do not even allow patent coverage. Taiwan for instance, offers no protection. Some other countries, while claiming to offer patent coverage do not enforce it, so money spent in securing a patent in a country such as China may not be well spent.
Another consideration which you need to make is that even if a foreign country enforces patent rights granted to foreigners, do you have the financial resources to legally fight and prove that your rights have been violated? In such a case you would be hiring an attorney from the country in which the violation occurred and the legal proceedings would be there as well. There would have to be a massive potential market in that particular country to make a fight of this expense worth while, and cash on hand may be a different situation entirely.
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What Does Patent Pending Mean And What Are The Rights Associated With The Term?
“Patent Pending” status is achieved as soon as the patent office receives your patent application or as soon as you send the application if it is mailed “registered U.S. Mail”. A patent pending means only that you have a place in line and that the patent office is in the process of reviewing your application. No indication of whether or not you will be awarded a patent is indicated. Don't misunderstand my use of the term place in line. I once saw a television commercial encouraging people to rush out and file for a patent and that filing this minute could be the determining factor as to whether they, or some one who filed before them would be awarded the patent on the same invention. The example used in the commercial stated that Alexander Graham Bell in his application for the patent of the telephone only beat his competitor to the patent office by several hours (which is true) and then went on to indicate that the reason that Bell was awarded the patent was only because of his place in line at the patent office. The fact of the matter is that the patent office took a significant amount of time hearing claims and counter claims, charges and counter charges and sorted through the information trying to determine who had invented the telephone first. After much deliberation it was determined that Bell had invented the telephone first. Being the first one to get to the patent office had nothing to do with it. This should be a significant indication to you as to how important it is for you to acquire proof of date of origin of your idea.
Let's say that you sent all of your notarized documents explaining your invention back to yourself registered mail and put them in your safe for several years. One day you see your invention being sold on the shopping channel under someone else's patent. Just because you can prove that you had the idea first does not mean that the other patent would be overturned. Where you had not tried to move forward in attaining a patent as soon as possible the other patent would probably stand. You however should be allowed to compete against the patent holder on the open market. You must however take into consideration how these matters are settled. Either party involved in a patent dispute can file a law suit to determine who the owner of the patent should be, or who should have what rights, or who would need to stop producing product until the matter is settled in court. Just as with any court matter the
right does not always prevail. I guess that's the price we pay to live in a free market system and under a government that protects rights above all. It's a trade off, but it beats communism or any other form of government that I have ever seen. In these court battles a good attorney means everything. These suits in many instances are extremely expensive and in most cases boil down to a war of attrition. Both parties usually dump money into the suit until one or the other figures that they have “good money chasing bad” and drops out of the race. This is particularly the case when there is one party which has vast financial resources and years
of experience in such cases and has learned all of the loop holes and time delays to use against a “weekend warrior inventor” or a newer, struggling business. Huge shares of many new businesses who had a good idea and should rightfully get the patent for which they have applied have been turned over to high risk investors in return for financial backing to fight their way through the court system. Probably the best way to attempt to avoid these situations is to quietly prove dat e of origination and then a quick move to patent pending and even on to full patent coverage before going public with your invention. Though it requires extreme amounts of patience, this is by far the safest way to proceed. A patent attorney may tell you that you are safe to proceed to the market before that and he may well be right, but if you remember any one thing from this presentation, remember this: “Legally right is one thing”. “Being financially strong enough to prove your legal position is another”.
Once you have a patent pending any advertisements, product, packaging, or anything bearing the name of the product should also use the term of “Patent Pending”. This is a warning to any potential competitor that you can prove date of origin at least to the date of filing the patent and probably before. During the patent pending stage, anyone is completely legal to produce and sell your invention. The hope is that a potential competitor will not proceed to spend the money necessary to get the product up and running because if a patent is awarded to you and his product infringes on your patent, then you can stop him from selling the product and he will be out all of the money which he spent to get his product going.
This means that in my opinion “flash in the pan” inventions are not worth patenting. Any wild craze things which will sell outrageously for a year or so and then fizzle out are usually a result of outstanding marketing and a fizzle would conceivably occur before patent protection could be achieved.
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What Time Frames Do You Need To Be Aware Of? This is by no means an inclusive or conclusive list. Attorney counsel must be sought for proper protection!
Once anything which can be construed as a "public showing" of your invention occurs you have one year to the day to have a U.S. patent filed (this could be as simple as showing a drawing of your invention to a friend, potential investor etc.). While the U.S. allows one year before filing some other countries do not. Japan, for example says that if you have had any “public showing” of your invention prior to filing for U.S. patent that your invention cannot be protected by Japanese patent. The reason for the U.S. law is to keep someone from selling a product for 20 years (or indefinitely) without a patent just waiting for someone else to start competing before proceeding with the patent. In a case like this, the inventor, (after competition started) would get his patent allowing him an additional 20 years of protection. The reason for the Japanese law is obvious. In the U.S. if a patent is not filed in the one year period the invention is considered “Public Domain”, meaning that anyone can produce and sell the invention. During the one year period someone else can file for a patent on your invention if you do not. If patent protection is awarded to the other party and you can legally prove that you had the idea first, you would be able to compete on the market against the patent holder while others could not. These rights however are not transferable to another party and it can get sticky as to where the line is drawn as to when you are competing against the patent holder and when you are “allowing your producer” to compete against the patent holder.
Until ca. 1994 patent protection coverage was for 17 years after the award of the patent. The coverage was then changed to 20 years from the date of filing. The reason that this change was made is that many inventors were including in their patents, and holding to, frivolous claims. They would continue fighting the patent office for inclusion of these claims absolutely knowing that these claims would not be allowed. This would, in effect, lengthen the life of a patent indefinitely. The inventor would continue to fight for these claims while at the same time, selling product and watching for possible overlap of his pending patent. Once overlap occurred (if ever) the inventor would accept the last offer from the patent office and lock in for an additional 17 years of coverage. This being the case, potential competitors would not proceed with putting up the money to get a competitive product up and running because they knew that as soon as they had spent all of that money that the inventor would progress from the “patent pending” stage to a full blown patent and all the money which they had spent would be in vain at least for another 17 years. This is the reason that until recently, most people who understood patents agreed that a patent pending was of better value than a patent, but now, all that has changed. By this method inventors were extending their protection by patents pending (which is only protection by threat to be stopped by future patent) to ridiculously long intervals while costing the government billions of dollars in fighting frivolous patent claims. Leave it to an American to figure out a way to beat the system! Leave it to an American politician to take over a hundred years to correct the problem.
Maintenance fees are required throughout the life of a patent and the laws change from time to time as to the amounts and time frames in which maintenance fees are required. Due to these changes it is highly recommended that legal counsel be maintained to keep you informed and advised of upcoming due dates. Failure to pay maintenance fees does result in loss of patent coverage and the reverting of the invention to “Public Domain” status.
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Does Your Idea Warrant Getting A Patent?
That is not to ask: “Do you have a good idea?” There are many good money making ideas for which it would not be prudent to spend the amounts of money that it would take to obtain a patent. I once had a musician come to my machine shop who had invented a music holder that clamped onto his tuba. He wanted me to get him a price for producing his invention for which he was going to file for a patent. I sat down with the inventor of this new useful item and talked with him. I asked him how much he would pay for a music holder like we were talking about at a music store. He told me. I asked him how many tuba players he estimated there were in the U.S. Again he told me. I asked him what percentage of the tuba players in the U.S. he could conceivably get to buy that particular music holder. To his credit, the inventor / musician was very realistic in the numbers which he gave me. I explained to him that the music shop would expect to get a 30% increase on their cost (the amount that they paid him or a wholesaler). If they bought the product directly from him, after paying someone to produce the music holder, he would be left with X amount to cover costs and to put in his pocket. It didn't take long for him to see that his good and useful invention did not hardly leave room for a profit even if he was not trying to pay for a patent. My new inventor friend was more than a little disappointed, but had the wisdom to listen to and accept counsel as he set his pride aside. We talked about the possibility of him buying the minimal amount of very inexpensive equipment and producing
the invention in his garage and selling them to wholesalers who distributed all types of musical instruments and accessories. We finally were able to put together a basic business plan which showed he could make a reasonable profit. He thanked me for my time and went away. I have no idea as to whatever became of him, but if I had to venture a guess, I would say that as with most people, when they see the amount of work that it takes to get a new business up and running, he put the invention on his tuba to show off to his friends, but didn't gamble on the invention to make his future. That isn't to say that he would have been wrong. With the limited market which he had, it was probably just as well.
In owning a machine shop I have seen many inventors come and go. A few had great ideas. Many more had good ideas, and a few were just completely bogus. I saw wise and foolish inventors from all of the groups with one distinguishing factor. The wise inventors sought out and considered all counsel before making decisions requiring any amount of money. Foolish inventors proceed forward at all costs, wagging their pride like a tail behind them.
My patent attorney once told me that inventors with their inventions are like mothers with new babies. Every mother thinks that her baby is the most beautiful baby in the world. He continued on by saying: “It's my job to tell some of those mothers that they have ugly babies”. If someone tells you that your invention will never go anywhere, swallow your pride. Ask them why they feel that way and then seek counsel from others who would know the market. Weigh out the information which you receive and then ask yourself completely non biasedly how you would counsel your best friend to proceed were he in your shoes. If you can make your decision from the outside looking in, chances are, you won't go wrong.
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If You Have Decided That Your Idea Doesn't Warrant A Patent, Do You Just Give Up?
Not necessarily. Do a market analysis. Put together a business plan. Figure out the price that your invention would sell for times the number of probable buyers as well as your cost of production. Include overhead, advertising, insurance's (especially product liability which is insurance protection in the event that you are sued for damages caused as a result of your product) and any other expenses. Calculate out your potential returns and then make a decision as to whether to proceed based on the potential returns vs. the risks. In running a small business, your costs of operation should be lower than that of a huge corporation. This should allow you to sell your product for a modest return without making so much money that big business becomes aware of the great returns and decides to compete against you.
I once attended a trade show where we were showing our new chemical pumps. One of my friendly Japanese competitors asked me if I could leave the booth for a moment so he could buy me a soft drink. I agreed and we went and sat down. We at White Knight were new comers to the high purity chemical pump industry, but some of the technology which we had introduced was considered by many customers, potential customers, and competitors as revolutionary. Though we had not as yet even dented any of the sales of our competitors during our first year of offering the product, it seemed that everyone in the industry knew who we were and were using us as a stick to beat up their current pump supplier by telling them that if they didn't improve their products that they would buy pumps from White Knight (our company). All of our competitors were concerned, several even panicked. We had several offers for buy out and even more offers of “alliance” during the first year, but we had held out. After a few minutes of idle talk, my Japanese competitor asked: “Do you realize what you are doing to this industry?” I asked what he meant. “You have a very good product with very strong patents.” He continued. “We have not been able to figure away around our current problems without infringing on your patents” “We have had several meetings at our company and have considered violating your patents and taking our chances in court.” “So, what is stopping you?” I asked. He replied, “We have done a market analysis and seen that even if we copy your pump exactly, we cannot compete with your price” “This being the
case, no one would buy the pump from us, after all our advertising and promotion, the customers would still buy your pump because of your lower prices.” “You have taken a very aggressive market stance.” He told me, “We have no options available and we don't know what to do.” To date none of my competitors have attempted to infringe on our patents. The risk of being sued compared to the possible gains just hasn't been worth it. No thing will ever protect your invention better than price, quality, and service.
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How Else Can You Protect Your Invention?
The most effective way that I have ever seen to effectively market an idea is through the use of trademarks. A trademark is a name or other distinguishing mark registered for use only by you or your company for the promotion of your product. Some trademarks have been so successful that we don't even recognize the real generic name for the item. Just for an example, I will use a trademark name and you try to think of the generic name. What is the generic version of JELLO®, KLEENEX®, XEROX® machine? For those of you who are more industrial oriented or mechanical, how about HELICOIL®, CHANNELLOCK®, or even TEFLON®? JELLO® is a trademark name owned by Kraft foods used to market their brand of gelatin. KLEENEX®, is another brilliantly marketed trademark owned by Kimberly-Clark used for selling facial tissues. While only slightly less effective Xerox incorporated has gone a long way to having us recognize their name as the description of photo copiers. HELICOIL® is owned by Emhart Industries Inc. and describes spring type threaded inserts for thread repair. CHANNELLOCK®, owned by Channellock Inc. describes adjustable pliers, and in my opinion, one of the most brilliantly and successfully marketed trademarks of all time. TEFLON®, is a registered trademark owned by Dupont used to market it's version of Polytetrafluoroethylene and Perfluoroalkoxy. Now that's a mouthful! No wonder Dupont did so well with such a catchy easily remembered name. These respective companies have each spent millions on the advertising and protecting their trademarks from genericide so the protection has not come without cost. The
advantage is that trademark protection is indefinite as long as maintenance fees are met as well as other requirements being met such as genericide protection. Most of the above mentioned trademarks were registered for use of a patented item, but after the patent had long since retired and offered no further protection we continued to be led to purchase their products by catchy, leading advertisements like “Only Dup ont makes TEFLON ®”. While this statement is completely true, most of us don't realize that we can buy Polytetrafluoroethylene from a lot of companies because we know that “Only Dupont makes TEFLON®”. If it wasn't true they couldn't say it. Right?
There are requirements which must be fulfilled to maintain trademark coverage. An attorney should be consulted for a full list, but the two areas which come to mind are payment of maintenance fees and protection from genericide. Genericide is the degradation of your trademark to become a generic description of the item which you are selling. This seems like a contradiction, as that is almost what we would hope for in achieving a solid trademark. If a trademark owner does not enforce the use of his trademark, and allows competitors to use the trademark or even customers or others to use their trademark in describing a product other than that of the trademark owner- the term becomes generic and is considered “public domain”. This means anyone can use the term. It can get very expensive policing a successful trademark. Dupont as well as many other large businesses has full time people who's only job is policing their trademarks.
As you do your business plan, research the market and find out the weak areas. I don't just mean product weaknesses, but more in the line of price, service and quality. You are going to need to sell much more than a nifty invention. If you are to succeed you are going to have to provide the industry which you are attempting to serve with as many of the items which it is weak in as is possible. The more value that you can add to your product, the better your chance for success.
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So, You Think It Will Be Better To Get A Patent And Sell It To Someone Else Who Will Take It To Market?
Good luck! We have all heard stories of people who have sold their ideas to industry and immediately gotten rich. We have also heard stories of people who have found gold, hit the big one in the lotto, or had an unknown rich Aunt Nellie die and leave them a gazillion dollars.
The problem which usually shoots down selling a product to industry is that most potential buyers of your product are those who understand the industry. In most cases they understand the industry because they already service the industry. This means that they already hold a share of the market. If they take on a newer better product, the first sales to be achieved would be those taking over their own market share which they had long before you ever came along. For them to want to change over to your invention, they have to be convinced that they can make significantly more money by having the rights to your patent or that their sales would be dramatically reduced if a substantial competitor were to gain access to your patent rights. Chances of them being concerned over a new start up company coming after their market share are pretty small. Big companies tend to have the attitude that if a new start up business gets in and starts hurting their market that they will just buy them out or hostily take them over. This being the case, you will probably have to get the product up and running regardless of how you will eventually end up. Once you do get a product up and running, it is difficult to sell out because you begin to see the enormous potential and the offers from buy out companies all seem inadequate. The problem that many privately owned, new, start up companies run into is that cash flow becomes very tight. In the event that cash flow is not available and payments to banks or others are not happening, it becomes a real possibility that someone who wants to own your product could buy out your loans and as soon as you are late on payment, foreclosure could be a conceivable possibility. This would be considered a hostile take over and it's not a pretty sight. There are other forms of hostile takeover, but that's not the point. The point is that you need to be aware of what you are up against.
The most probable way to sell your patent to a company is to find a company who sells similar products to other industries, but who could broaden their horizons into additional industries by the addition of your invention. These potential buyers already have a pretty good idea of the industry, but have nothing to lose as far as sales by the addition of your product. This is still a difficult sale, but it would be the easiest and probably most likely to succeed.
Beware of those who offer you the world, saying that they can't get significant “up front money” approved to do the deal, but they just know that they can sell jillions of your invention and they would be happy to give you a significant royalty for every one of your inventions that they sell. Agreements of this type need to have a clause requiring minimum royalties for the retention of patent rights. A buyer who is not bound by minimum royalties could conceivably “rat hole” your invention, never intending to take it to market risking damage to his own market share while at the same time protecting himself from potential damage to his market share from someone else selling your invention.
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Is Your Primary Desire To Own A Patent, Or To Make A Lot Of Money?
As I served a religious mission in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, I was staggered by the vast amount of wealth which in many instances resided only across highways and only several hundred yards from the most extreme poverty that I had ever witnessed in my life. People from those poverty entrenched areas lived in the “favelas”, or slums as we would say in English (I have a hard time using slums as a translation for favela even though that's what the dictionary uses. I had seen slums before but nothing that I had ever experienced could have prepared me for what I witnessed in Brazilian “favelas”). Most of the shacks were built from slats nailed together with little or no framing while some which were not as nice had card board nailed to a slat frame which was replaced from time to time as the weather destroyed the walls as more card board was available. The favelas were over run by rodents of all types and sizes which thrived due to the open ditches of raw sewage in and along the dirt streets. I remember the first week that I was in Brazil, my companion and I sat on very rickety chairs while a mother sat on a broken bed which reeked of the last who knows how many years of service without laundering and searched for and removed head lice one by one from the head of her unbathed three year old. Crime and domestic abuse went along almost unnoticed let alone prosecuted and were considered normalities in the way of life by the residents of the favelas. As the poor lived in their world it was almost as if they did not realize or even notice what the life style was only a few hundred yards away where some of the richest people I had ever met in my life resided or came from time to time to vacation.
If the poor were unnoticing of the rich, the rich were impervious to the plight and even the existence of the poor. In my life before or since, I have never seen such a contrast. During this time I was extremely discouraged to see the hopelessness of the children who grew up in the favelas and not only did I feel, but I actually was completely helpless to aid them to any temporal extent.
One Monday afternoon as my companion and I were cleaning our house (which was a fairly nice middle class house far from any favela) I responded to a weak, almost silent knock at the door. What I saw as I opened the door I had grown accustomed to, but it still tugged at the strings of my heart. A little boy about eight years old stood on the porch with only a tattered and torn pair of dirty short pants to cover his filthy body. He showed all the signs of complete malnutrition and parasites. His hair was falling out and his stomach was bloated which was a significant contrast to the frailness of his arms, legs, and neck. Without even looking up from the ground the little boy quietly, almost silently asked in shame if we had anything for him to eat and then shrank back to what I am sure he expected to be another denial for help, so common to people of his condition. I replied that of course we had something that he could eat and welcomed him into the house. His head jerked up in surprise and an ear to ear smile revealed several large cavities in his front teeth. I began cooking some food while my companion showed our new friend to the shower which he reluctantly used (running water was in many cases non existent in the favelas). Soon after emerging from the shower the young boy was led to a table full of American pancakes, sausage, ham, orange juice, milk, and anything else that we could find in the cupboards. He wasted no time in devouring quite a bit of food and only a few minutes later the inevitable happened. The poor little guy became violently ill. He began to vomit profusely and we could not control it. I soon realized that we had inadvertently poisoned him with good food. I became very
worried about the unrelenting condition not knowing what to do. About the time that I thought that we would need to get him to a state run hospital (which was almost a death sentence in and of itself), the vomiting stopped and the little boy laid down on the floor and went to sleep. After a two hour nap he woke up, came t o me, and said, “Do you have anything that I can eat?” I was heartbroken as I took him into the kitchen and got him two pieces of bread and a half a glass of milk. I then filled him up with water, gave him several pieces of bread to take with him and he walked out of the house, but to this day, has never left the most tender section of my heart.
Over the course of the next several days I could think of nothing else. How could there be people with such vast financial resources that they couldn't even spend their annual increase, living in luxury so near to an innocent child that I couldn't even feed good food to if I wished? I was discouraged and perplexed.
Mormon missionaries have two hours set aside each day for studying the Bible, Book of Mormon and other scripture (the Book of Mormon is considered by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to be the word of God and a religious record of the ancient inhabitants of the Americas just as the Bible is considered by Mormons and all other Christians to be the word of God and a religious history of the inhabitants of the middle east). One morning while reading in the Book of Mormon I came to a section where a prophet was reprimanding the people for persecution of the poor. Jacob (a book of Mormon prophet named by his father who migrated to the Americas by ship after leaving Jerusalem with his family, for the great prophet / patriarch Jacob, referred to in the Bible) Said, “And now behold, my brethren, this is the word which I declare unto you, that many of you have begun to search for gold, and for silver, and for all manner of precious ores, in the which this land, which is a land of promise unto you and to your seed, doth abound most plentifully. And the hand of providence hath smiled upon you most pleasingly, that you have obtained many riches; and because some of you have obtained more abundantly than that of your brethren ye are lifted up in the pride of your hearts, and wear stiff necks and high heads because of the costliness of your apparel, and persecute your brethren because ye suppose that ye are better than they. And now, my brethren, do you suppose that God justifieth you in this thing? Behold, I say unto you, Nay. But he condemneth you, and if ye persist in these things his judgments must speedily come upon you.
I was ecstatic. This persecution of the poor was no new thing and God, through the prophets of old confirmed that which the heart teaches. God was speaking on the very thing that I could not drive from my mind.
Jacob continued, “Think of your brethren like unto yourselves, and be familiar with all and free with your substance, that they might be rich like unto you. But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God. And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches if ye seek them; and you will seek them for the intent to do good- to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and to minister relief to the sick and the afflicted”.
That was it! The answer was there in black and white. I could make as much money as I wanted, in God's due time, if I wanted it for the right reasons. Not only could I make all the money that I wanted, anyone who wanted money for the right reasons could become rich!
Obviously, all of the poverty in the world will never be eliminated, but things can get better. I am reminded of a story told by a famous American author who watched a young boy on a New England beach throwing stranded star fish back into the ocean. Miles of beach line were littered with the doomed victims and even after hours of work the youth had made little progress down the beach. After curiously watching for quite some time the author approached the young boy and called to his realization that he would never be able to save even a small percentage of the starfish. “What difference could you possibly make?” asked the author. The young boy picked up another starfish and while hurling it seaward said simply, “I bet it makes a lot of difference to him”. So it is. We might not make a difference of mammoth percentage difference, but any difference that we make for the better makes a world of difference to some one.
There is no logical explanation for the technology that we at White Knight have been blessed with. The truth is that we to date have never even had an engineering graduate employed. Our competitors were much more qualified to achieve the levels which we have reached yet the fact of the matter remains. White Knight has the technology.
I hope that this will answer some of the questions which you may have had on patents and the like. More importantly, I hope that you have been stirred to do something good and to make a difference on whatever level God allows you. The strongest counsel that I could possibly give you to govern all areas of your life comes from the Bible, in the book of James, chapter one, verse five which reads: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.”
Any one can counsel you but God can give you wisdom. What more could you ask? Good luck in your financial endeavors and God bless.
John Simmons
If you would like me to send you a free copy of the Book of Mormon with no obligation please click on the link below and fill out the simple form that you can send online.
[Take me to the form]
This write up and any information contained therein are not necessarily the opinions of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. No approval from the same has been written or implied and I assume sole responsibility for the opinions and information contained throughout the text of this manuscript except for those denied in the disclaimer at the front of the manuscript.
John Simmons
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