Experienced Patent Lawyer in Texas

Do you need a U.S. patent for an invention or innovation?

Do you have a patent that needs to be protected from violation?

Have you been sued for alleged violation of a patent?

Derek Van Gilder is an experienced U.S. patent lawyer. He is one of the few attorneys in the United States who is licensed to practice law in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, located in Washington, D.C.

In order to be eligible for a patent, your invention must satisfy the basic requirements of being:

Non-Obvious: An innovation cannot be obvious. It must include some degree of creativity that the average person couldn't just figure out.

Novelty: An invention must be original. You cannot patent something that has already been patented. A patent search on the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office should always be done before a patent application is submitted.

Undisclosed: An innovation must not have been previously recognized. The very first revelation of the innovation should be the patent application itself.

Utility: An invention must do something. The application must show the creation has some useful function.

A patent application must meet all four criteria, or it will be denied. An experienced U.S. patent lawyer can help ensure your application meets the necessary criteria before you incur significant costs. If your application appears not to meet all criteria based on your original intentions, it may be possible to satisfy the criteria by providing additional information to differentiate your invention from others on file, or possibly to narrow the scope of the patent requested.

This is an area of patent law where the experience of your attorney may determine whether or not the patent is granted.