INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

WHY IT IS PATENTABLE

The innovation combines existing components that have been patented including urine test strips and wearable wrist blood pressure monitors. The novelty of the device comes from the combination of the monitoring tools into one device targeted at preeclampsia screening. The design of the urine catcher specifically targeted for ease-of-use in pregnancy patients. The relevant US Patents are 8,263,342 (urinary proteomic biomarker patterns in preeclampsia) and 6,413,223 or 6,394,959 (continuous blood pressure monitoring wearables), and 10,068,329 (visual dipstick analysis).

REMAINING CHALLENGES

The multi-component nature of our device for at-home preeclampsia monitoring makes it difficult to find existing similar patents using the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)  database. There are patents existing for each component of our device, but there are no existing products for at-home preeclampsia monitoring for pregnant mothers. The fact that no similar devices exist help in terms of novelty, but make it difficult to build off of existing patents. After ensuring that the device qualifies for patent protection, the next step in filing a patent on this device would be to ensure that the invention process was carefully recorded. Filing a patent also involves assessing the commercial potential of the innovation. Next would be deciding to either file a provisional patent application (PPA) or regular patent application (RPA) with the USPTO. The key elements of a patent application are the specification, the claims, the abstract, and the drawings. The entire process can take around 1-3 years going back and forth with the patent examiner [8].