Newbie Entrepreneur Advice

[OpenOcean]

A few colleagues and I have actually developed two completely original products.

Both use blockchains and one also utilizes software.

What I would like to know is the proper way to patent these processes despite being as poor as I am.

Any advice is heavily appreciated, thank you.

[moneytech]

I think try to find contact of patent office of your country and try to get advice from there. That will be more helpful.

[evenlydistributingfuture]

Contacting a patent office sounds like good advice. I would also consider recording your invention somehow, like with proofofexistence.com--maybe without being too specific so someone else could replicate what you have done. That way, there's a record of it with a timestamp showing you created someting before any competitor tries to do it. That's just a thought; you should probably so keep looking and thinking.

[AT101ET]

I can tell you straight out that patents are long and expensive processes.
The first question is, are your products bringing something new technologically speaking?
Just writing up the application involves various parts where you'd need different lawyers and designers.
If you have no capital and think a patent is the way forward, then perhaps try building some capital by offering shares to investors. There are plenty of seed funding platforms that you can use.

[aztecminer]

Contacting a patent office sounds like good advice. I would also consider recording your invention somehow, like with proofofexistence.com--maybe without being too specific so someone else could replicate what you have done. That way, there's a record of it with a timestamp showing you created someting before any competitor tries to do it. That's just a thought; you should probably so keep looking and thinking.

videotape to a flash drive and mail it to yourself.

[jonald_fyookball]

A few colleagues and I have actually developed two completely original products.

Both use blockchains and one also utilizes software.

What I would like to know is the proper way to patent these processes despite being as poor as I am.

Any advice is heavily appreciated, thank you.

Creating a patent (and doing nothing else) usually
isn't a sound business plan.  What are you going
to do with the patent?  If you're not going to use
it yourself, who would you sell it to?   How will you
do that?

You need to think a bit more about your endgame
and overall plan.

[Last of the V8s]

Hi. See here.

[Professor Plums]

Contacting a patent office sounds like good advice. I would also consider recording your invention somehow, like with proofofexistence.com--maybe without being too specific so someone else could replicate what you have done. That way, there's a record of it with a timestamp showing you created someting before any competitor tries to do it. That's just a thought; you should probably so keep looking and thinking.

videotape to a flash drive and mail it to yourself.

This wouldn't really stand up in court. Can easily be tampered with. I'd just try find your countries patent office and go from there.

[TinEye]

you should first be sure about the quality of your product, and if it really bring something useful or extraordinary, and maybe you can accumulate some money with it(you said that you're poor right?, then you can start to look for patent because if your product isn't good enough or it is just a copy-paste of something else with minus variations will not be worth it to spend money for a patent
in the usa you can turn your attention to uspto.gov, they are dealing with this kind of stuff

[Kprawn]

A world wide copyright or patent will cost you a lot of money.

Are you 100% sure your software is unique and this has not been done before? There might even be people working on the same concept now. Have you checked Github?

I will say a local patent will be a cheaper solution for someone without any external funding. {I presume you have approached Start-up incubators, angel investors, venture capital, for support?}

Here are some links {old and new} :

 1. http://cryptortrust.com/
 2. http://www.greenbankcapitalinc.com/greenbank-has-launched-bitcoin-angel-capital/
 3. http://www.falconglobalcapital.com/
 4. https://www.havelockinvestments.com/
 5. https://angel.co/accelerators/apply

Hope the info is helpfull. 

[ikydesu]

A few colleagues and I have actually developed two completely original products.

Both use blockchains and one also utilizes software.

What I would like to know is the proper way to patent these processes despite being as poor as I am.

Any advice is heavily appreciated, thank you.

Maybe try announcement your software on project development section. Because if you want to patent your software you need cost. And make yourself notice, you're the owner your software maybe build a website which show your product is good idea.


~iki

[jayce]

I think the most important thing in business is capital money to fund it. You said that you are poor, but if you don't have any capital, you can't make a patent even an advertisement to promote your product. You must prepare what your business need to running or if you don't, it will be useless. I hope you can get the best solution and good luck for your business. 

[Dxuz]

I can tell you straight out that patents are long and expensive processes.
The first question is, are your products bringing something new technologically speaking?
Just writing up the application involves various parts where you'd need different lawyers and designers.
If you have no capital and think a patent is the way forward, then perhaps try building some capital by offering shares to investors. There are plenty of seed funding platforms that you can use.

I'm aggre with him, find some investors, if the software is that "something new", there must be a lot of people who is ready to invest.

[WhatTheGox]

A few colleagues and I have actually developed two completely original products.

Both use blockchains and one also utilizes software.

What I would like to know is the proper way to patent these processes despite being as poor as I am.

Any advice is heavily appreciated, thank you.

Find some decent backers who can help you.  I would try to approach well known names in the industry so you dont get screwed. They will want a cut sure but they will have the experience you need.

[evok3d]

Contacting a patent office sounds like good advice. I would also consider recording your invention somehow, like with proofofexistence.com--maybe without being too specific so someone else could replicate what you have done. That way, there's a record of it with a timestamp showing you created someting before any competitor tries to do it. That's just a thought; you should probably so keep looking and thinking.

videotape to a flash drive and mail it to yourself.

This wouldn't really stand up in court. Can easily be tampered with. I'd just try find your countries patent office and go from there.

I have been told by several people that this actually works. Reason is, that the post office has a stamp along with dates and is a legal government authority which would hold up in court as long as the mail has not been tampered with. The cheapest way to show you had the idea.

I would look into this for sure.

[OpenOcean]

Thank you all for your advice!

I am going to look for angel investors to help me out.

[Hollingsworth]

Another thing you could look into is having your web and software partners sign a non disclosure agreement. This is standard practice in the high tech world, to help protect propitiatory technology from being disclosed.

[countryfree]

It takes at least 18 months to get a patent these days, and cost can be really high. What takes time is to check that the thing you want patented isn't already. Then, it's very difficult to do it if you aren't a lawyer, you need to describe your process or invention in very precise and careful terms. I think it's only large corporations getting patents these days, it's too difficult for the individual.

[erpbridge]

A few colleagues and I have actually developed two completely original products. Both use blockchains and one also utilizes software. What I would like to know is the proper way to patent these processes despite being as poor as I am. Any advice is heavily appreciated, thank you.

 Its not the best idea to get them patented as that would be an expensive process unless you are sure how successful they would be after launch. Another thing you would have to do is get them patented worldwide as any software company offshore could launch a similar service and your patent would have no affect on them.