My name is Kimberly Armstrong.
I'm a small business owner here in Maryland.
And we are an environmentally sustainable development consulting firm, and we also have
a component where we are looking at introducing innovation in biomedical technology as it
relates to health disparities in minority communities.
I was a little familiar with the patent program from just my own research and basic information.
So I did a search on how to develop patent and what's the process.
And where do I start?
Even how to get a patent filed.
I found that they had a pro bono services program and it was a process that you had
to go through to quantify.
I once again started doing my own research.
I made a couple of phone calls.
Um, found out some of the things I had to do to get the ball rolling.
The process does ask you about your income level, economic status, and you have to meet
a certain requirement to even do the application.
All of it's online so you can, um, it's just a link to click on and fill out the application
and someone will get back to you.
The next step was like a tutorial.
They actually, it's like a little quiz.
They ask you to go through, so you understand what the process is, and actually filing a
patent application as well as some of the other things that you will have to do to be
accepted.
In the end, if you pass, you get a nice little certificate.
After I was accepted into the program maybe, I would say, between two to four weeks someone
from a law firm called me and gave me some more information on, you know, what was the
next step.
My expectation on them, as well as their expectations for me and they, wanted to know more about
the technology.
You have to sign an engagement letter, that's an agreement that they are going to represent
us, as well as, even though it's pro bono, there are services... there are some fees
that have to be paid.
Those fees are strictly for the patent office, not so much for the law firm.
There's also a disclosure form, talking about the technology, what's the novelty of it,
what's the name of it, those kinds of things.
Once we did the disclosure form, um, they look at that to determine what it is we may
need... more information and to put everything we can think about into the application, so
there is less room to go back and forth.
The company, the law firm I'm working with - they have been excellent!
They had been tremendous and helped us brainstorming on what else we can put into the application
so that there is more of a chance that it gets accepted. On almost the first time.
You can't get better than free!
I mean, or at least at minimum cost.
Its not costing me a lot of money, even for the fees.
It's really not a lot and we pay those up front.
If the process takes a little bit longer, there may be some additionals fees but still,
it's nothing compared to what I paid before.