Your ideas may be valuable. We advise that you take measures to protect your idea before you submit it for our evaluation.
Review of Submitted Ideas
We will only review submitted ideas on a non-confidential basis. Under the laws of the United States and most other countries, you may be able to protect your ideas by obtaining patents, trademarks and copyrights. Furthermore, you may be able to maintain your ideas as "trade secrets" by protecting them from non-confidential disclosure. However, our policy does not allow a confidential review, so if you would like to keep your ideas confidential, do not submit them to us.
Non-confidential disclosure of any inventive part of your idea to others (such as Ford) prior to obtaining a patent may result in loss of potential patent rights in most countries, so we strongly recommend that before you present your idea to us, you consult a patent attorney for professional advice. The costs involved in obtaining such advice are solely your responsibility.
Some resources for obtaining additional information about intellectual property are listed below.
United States Patent and Trademark Office
The Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks
Office of Independent Inventor Programs
P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, VA 22313-1450
Tel: (800) 786-9199
Fax: (703) 306-5570
E-mail: independentinventor@uspto.gov
General information about patents and trademarks is also available by visiting the United States Patent and Trademark Office website.
Information about obtaining patents is also provided by the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
European Patent Office
Erhardtstrasse 27
D-80331 Munich
www.european-patent-office.org
Tel: (+49 89) 23 99 - 0
Telex: 523 656 epmu d
Fax: (+49 89) 23 99 - 44 65
Berlin sub-office
Gitschiner Strasse 103
D-10969 Berlin
Tel: (+49 30) 2 59 01 - 0
Fax: (+49 30) 2 59 01 - 8 40
Branch at The Hague
Patentlaan 2
Postbus 58 18
NL-2280 HV Rijswijk
Tel: (+31 70) 3 40 - 20 40
Telex: 31 651 epo nl
Fax: (+31 70) 3 40 - 30 16
E-mail: infohague@epo.e-mail.com
Vienna sub-office
Rennweg 12
1030 Vienna, Austria
Tel: (+43 1) 5 21 26 - 0
Fax: (+43 1) 5 21 26 - 35 91
German Patent and Trademark Office
Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt
80297 Munich
www.dpma.de
French Patent Office
Institut National de la PropriIndustrielle
www.inpi.fr
World Intellectual Property Organization
34, Path of Colombettes
P.O. Box 18, Ch-1211 Geneva 20
www.wipo.int
Tel: +41-22 338 9111
Fax: +41-22 733 54 28
United Kingdom Patent Office
Main Office
Concept House
Cardiff Road
Newport
South Wales
NP10 8QQ
United Kingdom
www.ukpats.org.uk
London Office
The Patent Office
Harmsworth House
13-15 Bouverie Street
London
EC4Y 8DP
United Kingdom
Swedish Patent and Registration Office
Executive Management
Patent Department
PRV InterPat
Box 5055
SE-102 42 Stockholm
www.prv.se
Tel: +46 8-782 25 00
Fax: +46 8-666 02 86
E-mail: prv.patent@prv.se
Visitors: Valhallaven 136
Companies Department
SE-851 81 Sundsvall
Tel: +46 60-18 40 00
Fax: +46 60-12 98 40
E-mail: prv.bolag@prv.se