Inventors Council of Central Florida

Patent Resources

While getting a patent is not the first step you should take it is often an important step. Here are sites that can help you get that patent. If you use any of the paid resources please tell them you found them through us. If you have contributions to this list please contact us with a link and a brief description of the service including why you found it helpful to you and we will get it posted for you.

Patent Research

United States Patent Office - Here is where you can find existing patents, file a provisional patent, file a utility patent, file a design patent, register trademarks, file copyrights, and a whole lot more. Of particular interest is the Patent Classification Code section which, when understood, will substantially improve your searching speed.

Free Patents Online - Here you can download complete patents as a single PDF file. You can also create your own search databases and download the key data to an Excel spreadsheet. It requires a free sign up then a login to view the patents. I have not noticed any spam as a result of using this site for the last 5 years.

Google Patents - If you do not want to login to view patents try this. You can download full PDF versions of the patents. In 2010 I have found it has trouble searching by inventor. It will freeze you out if you download too many patents too quickly.

Patent Storm - Free patent searching. They provide ways to browse by various categories. You must register to view PDFs.

IP.com, a global leader in intellectual property management, offers Peer Reviewers coveted access to highly sought-after patent and patent-related databases from around the world, free of charge.

Patent Assistance

FlPatent - The Law Offices of Brian Steinberger, P.A. - Brian has been writing and processing patents for ICCF members for a long time. He has also done many of those filed by University of Central Florida. His experience as an Examiner at the USPTO is a great asset.

The Patent Guild - Paul Royal has been a member of ICCF for several years. He is a Patent Agent and has worked as an Examiner at the USPTO. He is a great resource for economical advice and help with development of your patent applications. Click on this to download a PowerPoint copy of his 2011 presentation of How to Write Patent Claims.

Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster, Kantor, and Reed, P.A. - RICHARD S. DELLINGER and COURTNEY M. DUNN - Founded in Orlando, Florida in 1969, Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster, Kantor and Reed, P.A. is a multi-practice law firm with 110 attorneys. We represent clients across a myriad of industries locally, nationally and beyond our borders, advising on almost every aspect of business: from patents and trademarks to high-stakes, high-profile litigation; from complex commercial and residential real estate issues to wealth management; from labor and employment law to healthcare; from capital raising and entity formation to corporate growth and expansion. Rated AV by Martindale-Hubbell peer review, the firm is a founding member of Meritas, a global network of over 160 independent law firms with more than 6,000 attorneys. Richard Dellinger Biography Courtney Dunn Biography

[editor's note: Richard and Courtney gave a great presentation on Trademarks to us in August 2012 but no member has actually done business with them. Please let us know your experience]

Patent Applications.net - TED MASTERS - licensed patent agent in North Carolina. Utility patents (including technical illustration) starting at $1800. He works fast, is VERY competitive on prices and will monitor your filing compliance, argue your case when need be and be very insightful and thorough in building your claims. He has successfully gotten patents for nearly hundreds of inventors all over the world. (Tell him Leigh Martin sent you).

Patent Planet - A California Patent Attorney put this site up. It contains many articles on patents and patent law. It is a good place to get inside information.

Power Patent - Ralph E. Warmack, PhD, a Registered Patent Agent from the St. Petersburg area gave a nice presentation to us in February 2013. Click here to view a copy of his slides. It covered many of the issues created by the America Invents Act and how to deal with some of the innovation stifling new first-inventor-to-file requirements. He is also a representitive of Power Patent which is a software package which assists you in developing a provisional patent (of which we all will be doing more). ProvisionalBuilder helps you by organizing and cataloging your information while it does live searches to find other inventions which may compete with yours. It has some tools to help you prepare illustrations and a direct link to the USPTO for filing your provisional patent. It does not think for you. Nor does it reduce any filing fees. But this tool automates what you might do manually to help you more quickly file your provisional application. This is a tool to help you along. It is up to you to determine if it fills your needs. Since, at this point, no one in ICCF has actually used the software we cannot recommend for or against it. Check it out. It may be what you need.