To answer your question – Is it possible to patent and manufacture an addition to already existing product? The short answer is yes, but it can get complicated and you should talk with a patent attorney or agent who can advise you. Part of the complication has to do with function and materials. For example, if you invented string material for a tennis racket that performed the same function as the current products, but your invention lasted 10 times longer than in theory that could be patentable because you have improved a product even though the function is unchanged. If you invented a racket that could also fly like a kite, then you have added an unexpected function to an existing product and could be entitled to a patent. Hope that helps.

Thanks for your response Dong invents! It does help.

I am still a little confused about it though.

I will give another examle. Let’s say I invented a special type of car seat cover that would serve a certain function that no other car seat covers did before (again it’s just an example). If someone or myself were to make these covers, they would have to make them fit each car model separately – these car seat covers have to be custom fit for each car model. Is it possible for me to patent the invention and license tthe idea and manufacture those car seats that fit other companies car seats?

Alice, you should read the related thread listed below. I believe my responses to this thead (as well as others responses) will help you out. Let us know.

http://www.edisonnation.com/forums/patents/topi...

To answer your most recent question, it IS possible to patent the car seat COVERS to fit existing mfgs seats. It’s done all the time (after-market). Of course your patent would only be for the covers (to the extent that they are successfully “claimed” in your patent).

Going back to the original example – is this eraser attached to the pencil? You could hypothetically patent your “new, improved pencil,” but its possible that you could not legally manufacture/sell it. Meaning, if the pencil is patented and the patent is still in force, you could be infringing that patent by manufacturing and selling your own patented product.

However if the eraser is simply an attachment, you should be okay patent law-wise. And even if it is attached, you should be able to buy the patented pencils and use them within your manufacture – although this may serve as an obstacle towards keeping manufacturing costs low.

There are also, hypothetically, trademark issues that could arise if consumers ended up confusing your product as made by or endorsed by the the manufacturer of the pencil (assuming it wsn’t)…

criteriond is correct.

The patent office will only determine what is patentable, they will not decide if you are infringing on someone elses patent. You could very easily get a patent granted on your new eraser but then get sued by the company for patent infringement if you try to make their pencil with your eraser added onto it.

Alice,

As I understand from your question, you have comeup with a new addtional part of a product and you wanted to protect the new addtional part and wanted to license it to the similar products.

Ofcourse, if your new additional part is patentable subject matter, then certainly you can go for filing a patent and explore the possibility of licensing. As Brad correctly pointed out, you can not sell a product (assuming other parts of the product are patented), without getting license from the manufacturer of the product.

Hope it clarifies to your query.

Senthil
Patent Consultant
http://www.intepat.com

Thank you everyone. I learned a lot! To clearify in my example with the pencil – the hypothetical inventive part that attaches to a hypothetical patented pencil would be made/sold separately and simply attach to the patented pencil. If I understand correctly, I would not be infringing on the patented pencil if I created an attachment that fits on it, right?

KJ – it’s kind of like your “after market” explanation. If a company makes an aftermarket floor mats that fit the Nissan Maxima (just an example) floor exactly, the aftermarket company is not infridging right? Nissan Maxima already makes the floor mats. What if the “aftermarket” company made something new that Nissan does not make for the car that fits into the Nissan Maxima. Let’s say, it’s some time of an innovative sunglasses holder that only fits Nissan Maxima.

Alice, staying with your sunglasses holder, you would not be infringing a Nissan patent, SIMPLY by inventing a product that “operatively-connects” to it. Again, "after-market products are patented all the time. At the risk of confusing you… an excepction (assuming the standards of usefullness and novelty are met) would be “inducement”. Inducement occurs when yor product “induces” someone else to infringe someone elses patent, which is in itself considered a form of infringment. The scenarios that you mention do not seem to fall under inducement. BTW, even if a product is patented, if the patent has expired it becomes public domain (anyone can make use or sell it). As always, it never hurts to seek legal counsel. Good Luck!

Thank you so much for explaining this KJ!