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End to end patent services providing secure, defensible patents— Led by Ph.D. electrical engineer and registered patent agent, Ginger.
Your product is solid, your business goals are clear, and your patents need to be just as strong.
Your ideas are your business lifeblood-and they need to be protected.
You need someone with experience in technology and patent law to guide your strategy.
You’re stuck paying for overhead you don’t need.
Big firms assign junior talent. With Gingineer, your case is handled start to finish—no bloat.
You don’t just want patents—you want protection.
Whether you’re building a portfolio or preparing for litigation, you need filings that hold up under pressure.
The clear path to patent filings that hold up—and help you move efficiently.
Let's get aligned on the product and strategy.
We begin with a focused intake or live working session to understand your invention, goals, and business context. Whether you’re filing your first application or expanding a portfolio, we’ll define a clear path based on your timeline, budget, and IP objectives.
Build a strong, defensible patent portfolio efficiently and based around your needs
Your patent applications will be drafted, filed, and converted into patents that are enforceable and relevant to your business. We do our homework so that you and your inventors are not trapped in protracted, tedious meetings with your patent counsel.
Enforce and practice your rights.
We look at your product, your patent portfolio, and those of your competitors to determine how your product fits into the patent landscape. As needed, we will assemble a team to enforce your rights through litigation and advise you as to how to avoid infringing on the rights of others.
Information Guide
Whether you’re filing your first application or managing a full portfolio, this section will provide benefit and more context surrounding what we do.
When developing a strategy to establish your intellectual property rights, you’ll first need to understand what type of intellectual property you are developing so that you can engagethe right legal counsel. Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind, which can be legally protected in four different ways depending on the type of work. Useful inventions and new designs areprotected by patents, original works of authorship are protected by copyright, brandidentifiers are protected with trademarks, and confidential business information is protected through trade secrets. Legal counsel typicallys pecializes in one, maybe two of these four areas. Gingineer specializes in patents.
The answer to this question depends on business strategy, timing, and the inventiveness of your idea. A patent owner is able to exclude others from making, selling, using, and importing the invention in claimed in the patent, in the country or jurisdiction in which the patent is granted, for approximately 20 years for useful inventions (utility patents) and approximately 15 years for new designs (design patents). A single patent is an investment that typically costs tens of thousands of dollars, and a portfolio of patents that spans various countries and captures different aspects of the inventive concept may require over a hundred thousand dollars of investment. It is important to weigh the value of the short-term exclusionary rights against the investment cost of your patent portfolio. Gingineer can help you develop a patent portfolio building strategy that fits your business needs.
With respect to timing, it is important to contact legal counsel before you publish, present, or sell anything that incorporates what you to believe to be your invention. The patent system attempts to balance public needs against incentivizing inventors. Once an idea is made public, it may be considered in the public domain, and the inventor may be barred from patenting that idea. As another consideration to public welfare, a patent must include enough information so that the public is able to practice the invention after the patent expires. Therefore, the right time to file a patent application is after the idea is fully formed enough that the patent can contain sufficient description, but before any public disclosure is made. Note that, the United States is one of the few jurisdictions which allows for an inventor to file a patent after the invention is publicly disclosed, so long as the patent is filed within one year of public disclosure. Gingineer provides counsel to help you avoidpublic disclosure and ensure that patent application filing is timely.
Finally, the idea that you wish to patent must meet the legal requirements to be defined as an “invention”. The United States Patent and Trademark Office(USPTO) requires that an “invention” is novel (not previously in existence) and non-obvious (not an obvious variation or combination of concepts already inexistence). Gingineer can provide prior art search reports and analysis to predict the likely scope of patent protection that you may obtain.
A patent, regardless of the jurisdiction, must include a new idea. A patentability search of the prior art will uncover publications related to your idea so that you can determine what aspects of your idea are new. Knowing what aspects of your idea are potentially patentable helps to determine whether it is worth the investment to file a patent application. The patentability search also helps Gingineer to draft a more targeted patent application, which can expedite the process to obtaining a patent. Therefore, in many circumstances, it is a good idea to perform a patentability search before beginning the patent drafting process.
However, in some circumstances, it may not be necessary or practical to perform a patentability search before filing a patent application. The applicant's awareness of the state of the art is a factor. For instance, companies filing a patent application that is an improvement or variation of a product described in a prior filed patent application, or universities filing a patent application on a research paper with several citations may already have a good handle on the prior art and a patentability search may not add much value. Time may also be a factor. A patentability search may take several days to complete and analyze, and there may not be sufficient time to perform the search before filing a patent application. Budget may also be a factor. While a patentability search is not typically a major expense in the grand scheme of the patent prosecution process, it is an up-front cost, which may be difficult to pay for an early stage start-up that prefers to defer costs over quickly obtaining a patent. As a final note, it is important to remember that once an application is filed, each patent office will perform its own patentability search, which will likely uncover different prior art references than what was discovered in a prior art search.
Gingineer can help you determine whether a patentability search is right for your needs, provide and analyze the search if performed, and incorporate the search into the patent application drafting process as needed.
It is best practice to contact a patent practitioner before you make any public disclosure of your idea. Some forms of public disclosure will bar you from being able to obtain a patent on the idea in most jurisdictions. While it is not necessary to have a working prototype to file a patent application, it is generally advisable to have a clear road map to creating the product or process you wish to patent before initiating the patent drafting process.
To have a productive call with legal counsel, it is best to be prepared to explain what services you are interested in, who the involved parties are (e.g. inventors, patent owners), desired timeline for deliverables, and budget priorities.
If you believe you are ready to have legal counsel prepare a patent application, it is also advisable to gather materials that describe and show your idea. Visual representations of aspects of the concept that you believe are inventive are key to the patent drafting process. Any drawings, photographs, videos, or rough sketches of products or steps of a process are helpful. For inventive methods, processes, or software algorithms, flow diagrams outlining inventive steps are essential. Any information that is likely to be publicly disclosed should also be gathered. Ginigneer will review all materials that you provide before meeting with the inventors to avoid onerously long meetings and make the best use of everyone's time.
A patent is a legal right granted by a government. A patent is a type of intellectual property (IP) right that is directed to useful inventions and new designs. A patent owner is able to exclude others from making, selling, using, and importing the invention in claimed in the patent, in the country or jurisdiction in which the patent is granted, for approximately 20 years for useful inventions (utility patents) and approximately 15 years for new designs (design patents). Patent protection is only enforceable in the country or jurisdiction in which it is granted. In exchange for being granted exclusive rights, the patent must include sufficient information so that the public is able to make and use the invention once the patent expires.
A family of patents is typically filed for a single invention which includes several patents in multiple countries and with typically one to three patents in each country to cover various aspects of an invention. Nearly every country has a patent system.
A single patent is an investment that typically costs tens of thousands of dollars, and a portfolio of patents that spans various countries and captures different aspects of the inventive concept may require over a hundred thousand dollars of investment. Expenses related to a patent are typically spread out over multiple years at a pace that depends on filing strategy. Gingineer can help you develop a patent portfolio building strategy that fits your budget.
A US patent is a legal document published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office which defines intellectual property rights related to a useful invention or a new design. A patent owner is able to exclude others from making, selling, using, and importing the invention in claimed in the patent, in the US, for approximately 20 years for useful inventions (utility patents) and approximately 15 years for new designs (design patents). In exchange for being granted exclusive rights, the patent must include sufficient information so that the public is able to make and use the invention once the patent expires.
From the perspective of the USPTO, by default, the inventors listed on the face of a patent have equal rights to the intellectual property defined in the patent. When no other parties are listed, the inventors are the "Applicant" for the patent application and are therefore the patent owner. However, inventors may be legally required to assign their patent rights to their employer by their employment contract. In this case, the inventors may be required to sign an Assignment document as part of a patent application to indicate that they have assigned their rights related to that patent application to their employer. Inventors may also choose to assign their patent rights to another person or company through an Assignment document. In these situations, the entity being given patent rights through the Assignment document ("Assignee") is the patent owner.
You should mark a product as "patent pending" once a patent application is filed. After the patent is granted and given a patent number, the product should be marked with the patent number.
Not necessarily. Even if you have a patent on an invention, other laws may prevent you from making, selling, or using products that incorporate the invention. While a patent does not give you the right to practice your invention, it does give you the right to exclude others from practicing your invention.
The United States and most other jurisdictions require that an invention is patentable if it is new and non-obvious. Information that is already available to the public is the primary basis for comparison against your idea to determine whether your idea both new and non-obvious. With few exceptions, products that are already on sale and ideas that have been publicly described cannot be retroactively patented once they have been made available to the public. The United States does have a grace period in which an inventor may file a patent application within one year of public disclosure; however, many jurisdictions do not have such a grace period. Your idea may be considered new if there is no identical manifestation of the idea that is publicly known. An idea may be new, but nevertheless be unpatentable if the idea is an obvious variation or combination of an idea or ideas in the public domain. The general concept of obviousness can be subjective such that reasonably minded technical experts may disagree. The USPTO and other patent offices apply various legal standards and tests to determine whether or not an idea is non-obvious with respect to patentability.
Gingineer will advise you as to the potential aspects of your idea that may be considered new and non-obvious. If you choose to file a US patent application, Gingineer will advocate to the USPTO on your behalf with respect to the novelty and non-obviousness of your idea. Gingineer can also orchestrate and manage foreign patent filings and work with legal counsel in each respective jurisdiction to obtain patents.
Ideally, a patent application can be drafted within a few months, subsequently filed, then issued as a US patent within a few years. The process can be expedited to about a year total upon payment of additional fees to the USPTO.
The drafting process involves providing your legal patent counsel (Gingineer) with basic information about the inventors and applicant and detailed information about the invention such as drawings and written description. Gingineer will meet with the inventors to gather additional information and decide on the scope of the patent application. Inventors will review a draft of the patent application before it is filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Once the application is filed, it typically remains sealed (unpublished and confidential) by the USPTO and is accessible from the USPTO database only through your legal counsel until 18 months after the initial filing date. The application may be filed either within two stages, either first as a provisional application and then as a non-provisional application; or the application may be filed as a non-provisional directly. At 18 months, typically, the patent application publishes. A USPTO Patent Examiner will allow or reject the patent application within a few months after publication by making a written communication known as an "Office Action". If the application is rejected, Gingineer will argue on your behalf regarding the patentability of the invention in the patent application and will make amendment to the patent application as needed to address the issues raised by the USPTO Patent Examiner. Each argument made against an Examiner's "Office Action" is referred to as an "Office Action Response". Most patent applications are initially rejected, and 2-4 Office Actions are not uncommon. Time between Office Actions may be several months to about a year. In an expedited process, a USPTO Patent Examiner will provide an initial Office Action about 4 months from the filing date of a non-provisional patent application. In an expedited process, the application may be allowed within about a year from the filing date of the non-provisional application.
Once the patent application is allowed, Gingineer performs a final check of the file and makes any required corrections, and the USPTO requires an issue fee payment for the application to issue as a patent. Once the patent issues, the USPTO requires payment of maintenance fees due 3.5 years, 7.5 years, and 11.5 years after the issue date of the patent to avoid premature expiration of the patent. If maintenance fees are paid, the patent will expire approximately 20 years from the initial patent application filing date.
In many circumstances, it may be beneficial to file a follow-on patent application which is essentially identical to the initial patent application, but with different claims. The claims at the end of the patent define the rights given by the patent, therefore the follow-on patent application is an attempt to protect additional aspects of your invention. These follow-on patent applications may be referred to as a continuation application, a divisional application, or a continuation-in-part application depending on the follow-on patent application's legal relationship to the initial patent application. The follow-on application must be filed before the issue date of the parent application. In some circumstances, it may be beneficial to file a series of follow-on patent applications, wherein each follow-on application must be filed before its predecessor application issues as a patent.
The costs associated with obtaining a US Patent include professional fees and patent office fees. Professional fees pay for the time associated with preparing, filing, advocating for, and managing your patent application. Typically, approximately half of the professional fees are due up-front upon filing of the patent application, and most of the remainder is distributed out over the next few years to advocate for your patent rights. Patent office fees are paid to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and funds USPTO operations. The USPTO is self-funded by users and receives no tax payer money. USPTO fees are structured to encourage patent filings, particularly for small companies and individual inventors. Typically, half or more of the USPTO fees are collected to maintain enforcement of issued patents 3.5, 7.5, and 11.5 years after the patent issues, and discounts are given to small companies and first-time inventors.
For a single US patent, professional fees may be more than patent office fees; however, for patent families with multiple filings, patent office fees may ultimately outpace professional fees.
Many people mistake US Patent Publications for US Patents. Before a patent issues as a US Patent, typically at around 18 months after the patent application filing date, the patent application is published as a US Patent Publication. The patent application is therefore published regardless as to whether or not the USPTO decides to grant a patent based on the patent application. Therefore, a US Patent Publication is not enforceable; rather, the purpose of the US Patent Publication is to make the patent application publicly accessible. In contrast, the US Patent defines enforceable patent rights as outlined in the numbered claims at the end of the US Patent. In many cases, during prosecution of the patent application, the claims are amended; therefore, a patent application that is published in a US Patent Publication may be different than a US Patent based on the same patent application.
The numbering scheme for US Patent Publications and US Patents is slightly different, and if you an spot the difference you can quickly tell the difference between a US Patent Publication and a US Patent. A US Patent Publication number typically begins with four digits indicating the year in which the application was published, followed by a seven digit number, and a kind code beginning with the letter "A" (e.g. US2022/0291257A1). A US Patent number increases sequentially over time, with currently enforceable patents having 7 or 8 digits and ending with a kind code beginning with the letter "B" (e.g. US11,953,524B2).
A U.S. Provisional Patent Application is a lower-cost, informal filing that secures an early filing date but doesn’t get examined or lead to a patent by itself. A Non-Provisional Patent Application is the formal submission that starts the examination process and can result in an enforceable patent. Provisional applications don’t require claims and expire after 12 months unless followed by a non-provisional application. Non-provisional applications must include claims and meet full legal requirements. Many inventors file a provisional first, then a non-provisional within a year to benefit from the early date while refining their invention or seeking funding.
In U.S. patent law, continuation (CON), divisional (DIV), and continuation-in-part (CIP) applications are types of related patent filings that stem from an original (parent) application. Here's a quick breakdown:
- Continuation (CON): A new application that uses the same specification as the parent but includes different claims. It allows the applicant to pursue additional claims while the parent is still pending.
- Divisional (DIV): A new application with the same specification but with different claims directed to what the USPTO has determined is a different invention than what is pursued in the parent patent application.
- Continuation-in-Part (CIP): A new application that adds new subject matter to the parent application. It includes both the original content and new improvements or developments, with different filing dates for each part.
Depending on the filing strategy, the backlog of the USPTO, and the nature of the invention, a US patent may be granted in as little as nine months from the filing date, or as long as five years. Gingineer helps you develop a strategy that fits your budget and business needs.
A patent is a legal right granted by a government. A patent owner is able to exclude others from making, selling, using, and importing the invention in claimed in the patent, in the country or jurisdiction in which the patent is granted for the time period set by that country or jurisdiction. Patent protection is only enforceable in the country or jurisdiction in which it is granted. Gingingeer will help you determine which jurisdictions are most important to your business needs and communicate with legal counsel in those jurisdictions for you so that your patent portfolio is coordinated and professionally managed.
Some questions to ask yourself when determining where to file foreign patent applications are:
- Where do you plan to sell or license your product?
- Where do you plan to manufacture your product?
- Where do your competitors sell and manufacture their products?
- What ports are important for the transportation of your product and your competitors products?
- Is enforcement of your patent rights in these jurisdictions practical?
- Is there enough commercial value in these jurisdictions to warrant the cost of obtaining a patent in these jurisdictions?
Gingineer does that for you. Foreign counsel act like subcontractors, and Gingineer charges an hourly rate for managing foreign counsel on your behalf. Some clients choose to manage foreign counsel directly, in which case Gingineer only handles the US portion of the patent portfolio.
This varies quite a bit, but generally, you will pay for foreign patent office fees and foreign counsel professional fees in each jurisdiction. If Gingineer is managing the foreign patent applications, Gingineer will also charge an hourly rate for managing foreign counsel on your behalf.
Companies vary widely with their foreign filing strategies. However, some of the more popular jurisdictions are Europe, Canada, China, Japan, and South Korea. India, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and Singapore are also popular jurisdictions.
Contact a Patent Agent or Patent Attorney before you publish a description of the invention, discuss the invention with those outside your organization without a non-disclosure agreement in place, or offer the invention for sale.
There are several strategies that can be used to make the most of your investment in your patent portfolio while keeping an eye on the budget. If keeping costs down in the short term is your biggest concern, the process can begin by filing a US Provisional patent application, which has significantly reduced USPTO filing fees and can be filed with lower professional fees because a US Provisional Patent application has fewer formal requirements than a US Non-Provisional application or foreign patent applications. The US Provisional patent application expires 12 months from its filing date. Before expiration of the US Provisional patent application, a formal patent application must be prepared; therefor costs initially saved by filing the US Provisional patent application will come due within 12 months from the US Provisional patent application filing.
Overall costs can be saved by strategically selecting foreign jurisdictions in which to file the patent application. While generally, it is less expensive overall to foreign file directly before the 12 month mark, most expenses for foreign filing can be delayed until 30 months from the US Provisional filing date by filing a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application. Filing a PCT also has the added benefit of keeping the option of foreign filing open in most jurisdictions beyond the initial 12 month mark. Like the US Provisional patent application, the PCT is another placeholder application and does not issue as a patent. However, a patentability search is performed during the pendency of the PCT, that is paid for by the patent office filing fees of the PCT application.
Yes. The USPTO offers an expedited filing program (Track One) in which patents are typically allowed within about a year of the filing date. The USPTO charges an additional fee of approximately $4,000 (discounted to ~$2,000 for small entity applicants) for Track One examination. Because a US Patent is likely to issue via Track One around a year from the filing date, the issued Patent can be used to expedite examination in some foreign jurisdictions. Even in jurisdictions that do not offer expedited examination, the process of examining the US Patent application can be useful to further determine the scope of the prior art.
The claims at the end of the patent are numbered sentences that define the scope of intellectual property rights defined in the patent. A method or product must include all features of at least one claim to infringe the patent. Gingineer can help you interpret the claims and compare to a potentially infringing method or product. Gingineer can also connect you with the appropriate attorneys to provide legal counsel for enforcement.
If you believe your patent rights are being infringed, you will want to hire an attorney to help you enforce your rights. An attorney may approach the believed infringer for a licensing deal and/or serve the believed infringer a cease and desist letter. Ultimately, it may be necessary to file a patent infringement lawsuit. For imported products, an attorney may also file a complaint with the International Trade Commission (ITC).
You will need an attorney or team of attorneys who specialize in enforcement of intellectual property rights. Gingineer can recommend trusted legal counsel and provide expert witness and consulting support to the legal team.
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Reviews from founders & operators
"Working with Ginger Turner has been a game-changer for LZRD Tech. Her deep expertise in intellectual property, strategic thinking, and unmatched responsiveness have been invaluable in helping us protect and grow our business. Whether navigating complex patent filings or advising on enforcement strategies, Ginger brings a rare combination of technical rigor and practical business insight. She has been a true partner and advocate for our innovation."
"I have 16 patents so far, and Dr. Turner has crafted defensible claims for almost half of them. I was always happy when she was assigned to handled my cases while she was with Troutman. Now that she is on her own, I look forward to her handling my future patent prosecutions directly."
"As a technology founder, patents are crucial, but the process can feel intimidating. Ginger goes out of her way to understand my needs, tailoring her strategy to maximize value within my budget and clearly explaining legal intricacies. Dr. Turner genuinely cares about her clients, offering a personal level of service that goes well beyond a typical patent attorney."
Secondary Services
In addition to core patent drafting and filing, Gingineer offers technical and strategic services that support the entire lifecycle of your IP.
Expert Witness Support
Gingineer provides expert declarations, analysis, and testimony in IP disputes—bridging the gap between technical depth and legal clarity.
Litigation Consulting
We support your litigation strategy with technical insight, claim construction input, and document interpretation grounded in engineering expertise.
Engineering Failure Analysis
From product breakdowns to root-cause investigations, we deliver clear, structured reports you can rely on in high-risk, high-detail cases.