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Can you patent something illegal?

Can you patent something with a deceased person's name on it?

  • My sister in law is trying to patent my father's BBQ sauce and BBQ recipe. My father is deceased, and I want to know is it legal to do this without mine and my other brothers' permission?

  • Answer:

    Any patent application must be filed in the name of the actual inventor or inventors to be valid. There are regulatory procedures that determine the availability of the necessary "inventors' declaration" as part of the application process, where one or more inventors is "not available" to sign the documents. In other words, if your sis does not properly document inventorship and the right to file, the application would be defective and any patent issued on it would be, in theory, void. That all being the case, you may need a lawyer to help you figure out what, if any, legal rights the family has in your father's invention and how BEST to pursue patents for the mutual benefit of the heirs. 37 CFR § 1.42 When the inventor is dead. "In case of the death of the inventor, the legal representative (executor, administrator, etc.) of the deceased inventor may make the necessary oath or declaration, and apply for and obtain the patent...."

Tabitha Cron at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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Tabitha: First one to INVENT is who gets it... That is the first person to PROVE they invented it... Since your father is deceased looks like your sister in law might be able to do it.... Here is a SAMPLE BBQ Sauce Recipe to study.. http://www.google.com/patents?id=G6EUAAAAEBAJ&pg=PA3&dq=barbecue+sauce&hl=en&sa=X&ei=DugxT9O8O6jmiALTxbSPCg&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=barbecue%20sauce&f=false This might even fit better into the Trade Secret, like the Trade Secret of the Coca Cola recipe.. Have em read this if you want a patent though.. Do you know about the Provisional Patent Application? It only costs $125 and was designed by Congress to give individual inventors a chance at bringing their inventive ideas to market easily. It is SUPER EASY to do.. To see the top 10 reasons to file a Provisional Patent Application please watch the second video in this blog. http://www.filepatentapplications.com/blog/ If a provisional patent application looks like the right thing for you to do then take a look at another website that shows EXACTLY how to file one using a video format. http://provisionalpatentvideo.com/ If you need to know how to get your product sold on TV or to Costco, or Home Depot, or Target and the like then you might also enjoy reading this information by the Ginsu Knife guy! It is pretty cool. He gives you all his contacts and personal email! http://bit.ly/GinsuKnifeGuy1 Of course you could ALSO just go to the US Patent Office and figure out how to file a patent yourself. Here is the link.. http://www.uspto.gov/patents/process/index.jsp The flow chart there is pretty nice to give you an idea how to do what you want to do! Their patent search is hard to use and you need special programs to look at the patents… Instead, consider using Google Patent Search! Here is how you can use Google Patent Search to search for an "Oscillating inertial microbalance" http://www.google.com/patents?id=M5GRAAAAEBAJ&pg=PA6&dq=Oscillating+inertial+microbalance&hl=en&ei=vrbGTvGeDoXhiAKWpfXxDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Just type the term you want to search for in the search box. Play with MANY variants of your inventive idea. Also, for a more global patent search look here: http://worldwide.espacenet.com/advancedSearch?locale=en_EP Remember... Patents are MOSTLY "Improvements" on other inventions.. So, while you may see something SIMILAR to your inventive idea it does not mean that you cannot patent your IMPROVEMENT.. Example... A tire is an IMPROVEMENT on a wagon wheel. A radial biased ply tire is an IMPROVEMENT on a non radial biased tire. There are over 10,000 patents on tires... Nearly every single one is an improvement! And… a special gift for you is a sample Non Disclosure (also called an NDA) that you would have folks sign when you show them your inventive idea. You can change it up and use others but if you have NOTHING now it is a very good start written by my lawyer who charged me a TON for it! http://www.4lowprice.info/images/NDA_GeneralMutual.doc For EXTRA credit take a look at getting a free website widget here. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING. Just use the FREE widget thing.. http://CBproAds.com/refer.asp?id=50245 It will allow you to put adverts to eBooks on nearly ANY subject. If you had a store that sells horse blankets then you would include a widget that featured an eBook on how to stop horses from biting! You get 50% of whatever book folks buy. Pretty nice! If you like my answer can you vote on it? Thanks, Dave

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