Have you completed the Trademark and/or Patent Process? Do you plan to ?

SGT Jacqueem Spratley, that's a GREAT blog you have!! So, here's some of my experience with "domains" and what I think you need regarding your "blog name"... First, you definitely don't need a patent (at least, not at this stage). A patent is for something that is a NEW idea or product that's going to be built or sold. What you may want to consider though, is a Trademark or Copyright. That would give you rights to the name itself and then every iteration of the name (.com,.org,.net; as well as, keeping away names that come close to your name but aren't exactly the same). The nice thing about having a Trademark or Copyright is if someone does try to spin off of your name or even comes close, you have the right to deny them on the grounds that it infringes on your trademark or copyright.

SGT Jacqueem Spratley when you call EMP&A ask for Erik Pelton and let him know you got his name from me. I sent him an email letting him know you were a fellow Veteran and I think it will cost you about $500 (Filing fees are $270). At least, make the free phone call, he's the owner and a Veteran! Give him a chance to help us!

Thanks for the compliment and the info. I'm guessing the other half of the fee is for consulting and leg work.

Actually, the other fee is for paperwork and follow up (which there is LOTS of).

If they're assigned to your employer, does that mean you don't have exclusive ownership ?

Yes, it does. As a condition of employment I signed over all rights to the company that paid me to develop new products and processes. It seems fair to me; they took all of the risks and paid all of the development costs - including my salary.

Also, patents are like a 50¢ padlock; they keep honest people honest. Anyone who wants to break one and who has a stable of lawyers on retainer to fight over it for years can find a way around them. If you don’t have your own stable of lawyers on retainer a patent is of dubious utility, IMHO.

I appreciate you sharing that. As stated before, shortly before creating this thread was the first time I actually read about what a trademark or patent is. I've never been very knowledgeable with such legal matters. If you don't mind me going a bit further, what rights do you have regarding those patents? Do you get some type of paid royalties, required mention when mentioning the patent, a say in what happens with the patent, etc ?

SGT (Join to see), the company paid me $1 in exchange for my assigning ownership of the patent to them. The patents still have my name on them and I can list them on my resume, but in reality the company owns them and defends them with its own stable of lawyers. As such I have no say in anything the company does with them except to sign the application for any further claims the company adds to the initial claims.

As I said, it was really the company's rightful property from the beginning; they assigned me the project to work on, paid for all expenses in developing the product, paid the costs of filing for the patent, and they defend it at their own expense. My contribution was in designing and producing the product (which they also own and sell) and signing the papers where the lawyers tell me to sign.

I also did the patent searches as part of the product development process and wrote the draft patent application before we gave them to the lawyers to file them. It is an interesting process to work with, but patents are really not the gold bars in and of themselves that some people seem to think they are. The real work of monetizing the product takes place after the patent is filed and the product line is being launched by the company.

As a blogger/vlogger, my questions would refer more to trademarks, copyright, and Creative Commons. I have a buddy that's undergoing the process that I'll recommend check out this thread, though.