Our firm provides nationwide legal representation for inventors. Patent your invention and stop companies from stealing your idea.
"A patent unworthy of litigation is just as bad as a patent litigation case without a valid underlying patent." - Robert Z. Cashman
CASHMAN IP™ was founded upon the premise that the timeline of a patent should not end upon its issuance, but it should necessarily contemplate that eventually someone will infringe your patent, and thus the aspects of protecting your invention through careful drafting of claims and anticipation of licensing opportunities and enforcement of patent rights should be built into the body of your patent from DAY ONE.
HOW PATENT ATTORNEYS OFTEN ACCIDENTALLY DEVALUE PATENTS.
Patent attorneys (my peers) are often taught that a patent need only describe what the invention is so that the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) would be able to distinguish one invention from the pool of patents and publications in existence. It is too easy to overly narrow patent claims so that the application issues on the first try. We believe this is a formula for an unenforceable patent. A good patent is one which has a rich prosecution history, often with many rounds of rejections from the patent examiner, where the patent attorney successfully argues the broad scope of the invention and earns the examiner's recognition as being distinct.
On the other extreme, patent attorneys often form the claims -- the most important and enforceable part of the patent -- in a way that they are so over-sweeping and overly broad that they become unclear to third parties (who eventually include judges and juries evaluating the patent down the road) what exactly is the invention.
Both of these extremes -- having a patent with overly-narrow claims, and having a patent with overly broad claims -- are dangerous to the validity of a patent. A third pitfall is when the patent claims are written too-specifically where only one embodiment of the patent is claimed, and the broad idea is excluded leaving the inventor without adequate protection for their invention. I've seen so many patents that are written as if the engineer were describing in needless detail an object placed in front of her.
It is my understanding that the problem which causes these errors is the way some law firms value engineers for their advanced degrees rather than their patent-drafting skills. The norm in patent law firm practice has become that the patent attorney you speak to at the law firm is an engineer who once heard that they can make a lot of money doing patents, and so they decided to go to law school; they got swept into a patent law firm based solely upon the fact that they have a law degree and an advanced science or engineering degree; the law firm overlooks the fact that the engineer or scientist does not have any idea how to properly write a claim and unfortunately for you, they patiently wait for her to learn as she practices her skills on your patent application.
WHY SO MANY ISSUED PATENTS ARRIVE DEAD ON ARRIVAL.
The concerning part is that these engineers unskilled at writing patent claims often mistakenly include limitations in their patent claims that simply make the patent worthless or "DOI" (dead on issuance) because the claims were written with such specificity that it becomes too easy (and often even inviting!) to manufacture the same product as is described in the invention, but without one of the specific limitations that were needlessly added into the claimset and which should probably have been simply left out. Over the years, I have found and continue to find these worthless additions far too often when analyzing patent claims for value, and I see them as bugs or leeches that suck away from the value of the issued patent.
A TRAGIC EXAMPLE OF POOR PATENT DRAFTING.
It is too funny and often tragic when a patent claims, for example, "an airplane engine having three propeller blades attached thereto," (claiming three propeller blades) when the plane will fly just as well with only two propeller blades. Imagine the tears of the inventor and the lost profits of his company after spending his life savings to acquire the patent of his dreams when manufacturers started building airplanes with ONLY TWO PROPELLER BLADES and making millions and millions of dollars and EVEN THOUGH the inventor's invention and idea was for that exact airplane manufactured with full knowledge of his patent, his three-bladed propeller patent will gather dust on his bookshelf until the patent is abandoned because the inventor could no longer pay the maintenance fees on the dusty patent, or the life of the patent runs out with manufacturers smartly knowing never to make an airplane with three propellers... UNTIL THE DAY AFTER the patent expires. ONLY THEN do airplanes having propeller with three blades become the standard and the norm in the field.
WHY YOU SHOULD FEEL SECURE WITH CASHMAN IP.
Our network of patent attorneys at Cashman IP Law™ are trained as patent litigators rather than engineers [who likely happened to become patent attorneys once their engineering plans didn't pan out]. Our patent attorneys begin protecting your invention and your ideas as soon as we begin drafting your patent. At all stages of prosecution, a patent attorney with knowledge of patent litigation will review your patent to make sure you feel secure and comfortable with Cashman IP Law™ that your provisional patent draft, your patent application, and every response and every amendment in response to a USPTO Office Action will be looked at with the eyes of both a licensed patent attorney and with the eyes of a patent litigator.
THE CASHMAN IP PEER-TO-PEER™ AND ARSENAL ON DEMAND™ PATENT LITIGATION STRATEGY.
On top of that, with our next generation Peer-To-Peer litigation™ model and our Arsenal On Demand™, you can feel secure that with Cashman IP Law™, when companies step forward and decide to infringe your patent (and eventually, they usually will, regardless of whether intentionally or incidentally by carelessly not checking the prior art to see whether a particular invention provides patent rights to its inventors), our arsenal of patent litigation attorneys and law firms in our network will be ready, able, and willing to step up and meet the company's lawyers face-to-face to handle every motion, every discovery request, and to respond to every litigation trick and maneuver which are commonly thrown at a small patent litigation firm with the intent of flooding the attorneys with so much work that they are crippled and unable to properly defend you and your interests. The Cashman IP Law Firm™ respects and honors the fiduciary duty we owe to our clients and thus we have teamed up with attorneys from other IP Groups and law firms to provide for you an Arsenal On Demand™ to protect your patent from those who infringe it.
WHY WE ARE DIFFERENT FROM THE TRADITIONAL LAW FIRM.
We will help you to isolate and distinguish your invention from those in the prior art by agressively checking the prior art records rather than the common patent attorney tactic of throwing the invention against a wall, and "seeing what sticks."
We will help you to identify what the market value of your patents would be, and we will inform you of your options regardless of whether your intention is to use your patent to make a profit, share your technology with your competitors and license your patent rights to them, or whether you wish to have us find those companies who have infringed your patent and sue if necessary to protect your rights given to you by your patent.
We will help you find correctable errors in your patent claims that would normally cause your patent to lose its value and make it unenforceable should you ever wish to license or sue future infringers to protect your rights. We offer this service so that you will be able to fix your patent within the time allotted by the US Patent & Trademark Office before your patent becomes merely a trophy rather than a force to be reckoned with in your market.
