About the Inventioneers Patent Scholarship

ABOUT US
For those of you new to our program, we are the Inventioneers, a non-profit public charity. We began as a FIRST® LEGO® League
(FLL®) team back in 2004 and had amazing success in that program (we still need to pinch ourselves every once in a while).
We were the four time NH State FLL® Champions and in April of 2010, we earned the Champions Award at the FLL® World Festival
in Atlanta, GA.

We have a utility patent pending at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Important Announcement:



Program Re-Launch Coming Fall 2016!!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Inventioneers Quote of the Day

"We have come to know that our ability to survive and grow as a nation to a very large degree depends on our scientific progress.  Moreover, it is not enough simply to keep abreast of the rest of the world in scientific matters. We must maintain that leadership."

-President Harry S. Truman, on signing the law that 
founded the National Science Foundation. 



Sunday, April 22, 2012

Download Our Poster!

Click image above to go to downloadable poster

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Inventioneers Patent Tip: Priority Date

"Priority date" is a very important concept to learn if you are interested in patents. The priority date proves when you came up with your invention. It is like a place holder for your idea. It is important because if another inventor comes up with the same idea, the priority date will decide who had the idea first.

That's why we think filing a provisional patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is the way to go. It sets your priority date - it sets your official date of invention. If you publicly disclose your invention, that becomes your priority date.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Inventioneers Quote of the Day

“The focus of education is moving away from cramming our heads full of answers and toward a process of exploration and discovery, a way of thinking rather than a set of memorized formulas.”

-Eli Luberoff,, kid entrepreneur,  CEO and Founder of Desmos


Coming soon . . .

Trade Secrets - pros and cons.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Inventioneers Patent Tip: Public Disclosure


One area where kid inventors may put themselves at a disadvantage is in the case of public disclosure of their inventions.  Under United States law, a public disclosure occurs when an invention is:
  1. Described in a printed publication anywhere in the world;
  2. Placed in public use in the United States; or
  3. Offered for sale in the United States.
Printed publication can be further defined as any communication that:
  1. Appears in a fixed-media form (i.e., not necessarily “printed”);
  2. Is considered to be available to the public (either because it was intended to be made public, as an article in a scientific journal, or because it was made without an obligation of confidentiality, as a casual letter to a friend); and
  3. Describes an invention in such detail that one familiar with the field (“skilled in the art”) could duplicate it or put it into use.1
You can see that making an invention public on the internet falls under "public disclosure" and starts the one year clock ticking to obtain a utility patent.

Another issue that arises is that when kids