00:06
Now the next question that we have comes from Drew, see if my idea utilizes a common household item that I'm using in a new application, if the physical item is existing, but not being used for this application, does that eliminate the possibility of pretending it?
00:26
Perhaps she meant patenting it? Possibly, right? So, so, so drew, I would say apps, you know, the fact that something exists. If you combine it with something else, the combination might be patentable, even though the individual pieces are not. And let me let me get to you give you a great example of that, like as an inventor, say you have, say your idea is to help prevent people from dying because of carbon monoxide in their garage. So you know, the cars have a high level give off a high level of carbon monoxide. If you park in your garage, and you close the door behind you, and you happen to let the car run, you have a huge risk of possibly dying from carbon monoxide. Now, the carbon monoxide alarm has existed now for some 30 some years. So there's nothing unusual about the alarm. But what if somebody took that alarm? And this isn't a this is a remote slide changer. What if somebody took that carbon monoxide alarm and stuck a transmitter inside it so that when the carbon monoxide levels are too high, it shoots a signal to the garage door and opens the garage door. This true is an example of an invention where all the components already existed, this inventor didn't invent the carbon monoxide alarm, they didn't invent the transmitter or the receiver. They didn't invent garage doors, they didn't invent the chains and pulleys and the system to open the garage. But what they did is they took these three different items together. And if you take three known items together and you use you, and they provide some advantage that they individually would not have, you take a you take B and you take C but a is sold on the market already exist, be sold on the market already exist, see sold on the market already exists. This could be the garage door, the garage door opener, and the carbon monoxide alarm. But you take all three, you combine them into one system that provides an advantage that neither one of these alone would have would have solved, then you've got patentable subject matter if it's if it's new and unique and hasn't been done. So in this case, in the example that I'm talking about a carbon monoxide alarm by itself. Yes, it might save your life. But what if you when you're getting out of your car, you slipped and fell, and you can't get up? So now you've got this alarm all by itself, all it's going to do is make a sound? And what's that going to do for you, you basically get to hear yourself die. That's that's the beauty of these combination patents. But if you take that alarm, and you mix it with a transmitter so that the garage door opens, now, the product saves a life. So it's this combination that's that could be beautiful. It says individually, the product might provide no advantage, like I mean going back to this and keep using this example. But this inventor, he didn't invent the cup. He did not invent the paper cup, and sleeves for all kinds of other products already existed. There might be a sleeve for the handle of a hammer like a leather sleeve so that you have extra, a better grip. There might be sleeves for all kinds of other things. But taking that combination combining the sleeve with a coffee cup, now you've got a unique combination. So that's the short answer is yes. Don't give up on your idea because you're buying stuff off the shelf to put it together. Most patents are combinations of existing products.