Idea For A Background

[Trance2006]

I like the sound of that idea, sure beats using clear ducktape

 

[smmetz]

smmetz you ever heard of a poor man's patent. It's where you send yourself a piece of mail with the idea in it so it gets postmarked.

I have heard of that. Most of what I have heard regarding patents was from a workshop from my job. My company has the most US patents for like 9 years in a row or something, and is always encouraging us to apply for patents. Anyway, I think that mailing yourself the idea falls under that "prior art" thing - it is proof that you thought of it first in case you find out that someone else has patented your idea. I'm really not sure how effective it is, but it only costs a few pennies to try I suppose. (then hundreds of $$$ in legal fees if you ever actually dispute a patent with it)

Here is the URL I got from work, to search the patent database (US) in order to find out if your idea already has a patent:
http/www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html

 

[rEvolution27]

The problem is that these things are too hard to put on... i'll never get it straight the first time and i'll have to take it off a million times to get it right..... vaseline lets you slide it around