00:00:11another edition of ask Evan in today’s
00:00:14video I’m going to be answering the
00:00:15question from one of my readers Becky
00:00:17who has developed a baby blanket car
00:00:19seat cover that is unique but very
00:00:22simple to make and she’s wondering if
00:00:23she should go apply for a provisional
00:00:25patent or not in what protection that
00:00:27gives her so Becky I’m not a lawyer so
00:00:29we should definitely go talk to one but
00:00:31here is my understanding and hopefully
00:00:32it can help you first of all to apply
00:00:34for any kind of pattern you have to make
00:00:36sure that the product is not yet
00:00:38commercially available so we have to do
00:00:40it before you start selling your product
00:00:42if you’ve already started selling your
00:00:44product then you can only file a patent
00:00:46on the changes that you’ve made some new
00:00:48improvements to it second original
00:00:52patent gives you one year international
00:00:54coverage for your idea across every
00:00:56market and I believe in some
00:00:58circumstances you can also extend it to
00:01:00another year but you basically have that
00:01:02first year to figure out is my product
00:01:04commercially viable or not because a
00:01:06original patents a lot cheaper than
00:01:08going for a full pot so once you’ve had
00:01:10that year to figure out if you’re going
00:01:12to go for the full pot or not you have
00:01:14to decide then which markets you want to
00:01:16get a patent it so each country has
00:01:18their own process and there’s a cost
00:01:20involved to get in a patent in each
00:01:21country so that’s get very expensive to
00:01:24have full international coverage because
00:01:27you have to apply for so many different
00:01:28individual patents at the end of the day
00:01:31you have to figure out is it worth the
00:01:33time and cost to get this thing going
00:01:36because people can still talk to your
00:01:38idea and as part of your patent you have
00:01:39to explain exactly how you create your
00:01:42product so it’s really easy to rip off
00:01:44for you as an entrepreneur you would
00:01:47then have to go and enforce the pattern
00:01:49and that’s usually the biggest stumbling
00:01:50block for a lot of business owners
00:01:51people will still top your idea but you
00:01:54have to then go hire lawyers to enforce
00:01:56it and say you’re copying my patent and
00:01:59you know
00:01:59to do this so usually it’s not worth it
00:02:01for the entrepreneurs to have that kind
00:02:03of expense to go and hire lawyers to do
00:02:05it but you do have one year original
00:02:07patent status for international coverage
00:02:09but hopefully gives you some time to
00:02:11figure out if your product is going to
00:02:12sell or not and if it’s worth taking
00:02:14that next step so hopefully that helps
00:02:17gives you some ideas to work with if you
00:02:19guys liked the video please give it a
00:02:21thumbs up below and I’d also love to
00:02:22hear your thoughts and feedback if you
00:02:24want to leave a comment and stay tuned
00:02:26for the next episode
00:02:31you
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