Does anybody have experience with.....

[Sheherezade]

surgical instrument patents? DH and a coworker have an idea. I have a vague recollection that somebody posted here previously about their SO patenting. I'd appreciate any info about the process.

I don't have any advice for you Angie other than that if they have a good idea they should run with it. One of DH's former coworkers invented the Zerowet and now lives in a $10m ocean front house! I keep urging DH to come up with his own little invention!

I don't have any advice for you Angie other than that if they have a good idea they should run with it. One of DH's former coworkers invented the Zerowet and now lives in a $10m ocean front house! I keep urging DH to come up with his own little invention!

I have repeatedly told my DH this too!!!! Always, always think of how to make something better or think of what he could invent that could be used for a particular procedure.

Pursue it Goofy, I doubt you will regret it! I have had several ideas in the past, one of which I let someone tell me I couldn't do and dropped it. This idea of mine ended up in the NY Times Tech section featuring a woman receiving 3 patents for the exact same thing. I was SO disappointed with myself, still am....

I would contact a patent attorney. They can tell you whether or not someone already holds a patent for your idea and steer you in the right direction.

[Sheherezade]

Thanks all. I think the patent office is the way to go. We looked over the info last night and it seems like a good deal. Of course, DH and friend are worried that the U is going to "steal" their great idea. In some situations, you yield your "rights" to an idea if you are a university employee; that happens often with drug discoveries. For this reason, they were hoping to do this outside of the U. It turns out that the U takes 1/4 profit, the department gets 1/4 for anything they want and the "inventor" gets 1/2. That still seems great, considering they walk you through the process and support you in start ups, negotiation and patent application. I took courses in patent law and intellectual property when we were in Boston so DH thinks I should just do a private patant application. The cost is under $1000, but the likelihood of screwing up is high . The take home message from my patent courses was clearly "The little guy gets scr**ed." I think the U will be better able to defend his interests and support him --they have a vested interest in the process succeeding. I'll let you know how it turns out! ( And then you can all come to my 10 mil ocean front house .)