Ever since law school I have been asked about the "Poor Man's Patent". And ever since then the write back is the same now as it was then: there's no such thing. Agreeing to the "Poor Man's Patent", the creator simply writes down his invention on paper and sends it to himself in the mail. Supposedly, this sealed envelope with the postmarked date will signify the date of invention and will somehow accord monopoly possession in the invention. The idea of a "Poor Man's Patent" is an enduring myth with the staying power of urban legends such as Elvis sightings and Ufos. These urban legends may sound "truthy" but are specious.
The only way to safe the novelty of an invention such as novel devices, enterprise methods, and unique designs straight through patent law is to file a patent application. Now, it is true that establishing a date of allowance to practice is foremost in some cases, a "Poor Man's Patent" is probably not the way to go. A great recipe of establishing a date of invention is a lab notebook. In this lab notebook, the creator would report his experiments, date and sign it in every entry. However, you should note that a lab notebook would Not give you patent possession either. It would simply make a date of conception or allowance to practice for the invention which may be foremost in subsequent patent prosecution or patent litigation.
Ufo Sightings
Now, if person is looking for the cheapest way to safe intellectual property, Copyright law might be applicable in wee cases. One example may be source code or object code in software. Since software code is protectable under both patent law and copyright law, a Copyright registration might accord some intellectual property protection. However, you should note that the registration fee would not safe against reverse-engineering and other various fair uses which may not fully safe your invention. Note that Copyright law will not safe inventions such as devices, novel methods, etc. Copyright law only protects the expression of ideas, and not the fundamental ideas themselves.
Poor Man's Patent
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