THINK DIFFERENT
Let there be no confusion — it’s a race to the patent office.
As an inventor, your only goal right now should be safeguarding and securing your idea. This means filing a patent application.
This is because the U.S. is now a “first to first to file” patent system.
“First to file” means the first person to file a patent application on an invention is the person entitled to ownership rights of that patent.
Evidence of an earlier date of invention like mailing yourself a description of the idea (called a poor man’s patent) will no longer be recognized by the USPTO to “swear behind” or “antedate” the patent filing of another inventor
Now, more than ever, dragging your feet or procrastinating before you chose to file a patent application could be disastrous.
Can’t Come Up With the Funds to File a Patent?
If you are handcuffed by a limited budget, at least have the patent search done.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did.”
~ Mark Twain