Patent caveat

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A patent caveat, often shortened to caveat, was a

Caveats were similar to provisional applications used today in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) which also expire after one year. However, provisional applications today are non-renewable under any circumstances.

According to the Guide to the Practice of the Patent Office 1853,

Perhaps the most famous example of such a conflict was on 14 February 1876, when Elisha Gray filed a patent caveat and Alexander Graham Bell filed a patent application on the same day, both relating to the telephone. Gray ended up abandoning his patent caveat, but the case was extremely controversial and continued in the courts for many years. A deaf patent examiner (Bell was well known for his work with the deaf and had a deaf wife) had met with Bell on the matter, and a handwritten marginal note including one of Gray's critical technical innovations appeared on Bell's patent, which had not been there on the original filing.^{[citation needed]}

This case contributed to the perception that patent caveats were potential leaks of valuable inventions to other applicants with friends in the Patent Office, without providing a solid legal recourse when confidentiality of the caveat was so abused. Gray did eventually win a judgement in a US court vindicating his claims, but long after: Bell was forever after known as inventor of the telephone. See the articles on Gray and Bell for details.^{[citation needed]}

Cost

The filing fee of $10 for a caveat was less costly than the filing fee $15 for a full patent application.^[3] As stated by the USPTO: "In 1861, the fee for obtaining a full patent was $35, of which $15 was to be paid at the time of application and $20 when the patent was granted. In 1922, the patent filing fee increased from $15 to $20." However the patent caveat fee remained $10 per year until the caveat system was abolished.^[3]

See also

• Patent model
• Patent Office 1836 fire
• Patent Office 1877 fire
• United States Defensive Publication
• United States Statutory Invention Registration

Notes

References

• "Patent Act of 1836, SEC. 12" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-03-19.

External links

• Elisha Gray's telephone caveat drawing
• "Caveat" . Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.