This story underscores the importance of documenting your invention.

A True Story

A professor at a small college, along with his advanced molecular biology students and scientists at other colleges and universities, developed a gene therapy that was based on a nonobvious use of a bacterium. The formulation had the potential of changing how certain medical conditions, including infertility, were treated. Many other people -- not in the professor's research group -- were working on the same idea, and when the professor's group applied for a patent, they discovered that a group of researchers from Australia (who he knew were working on the same problem) had filed their own patent application at about the same time.

Everybody hired lawyers and asked an arbitrator to determine who thought of the idea first. They produced their lab books, and it appeared that the Australians may have been first. But then, the lawyer representing the college and the professor reached into his briefcase and pulled out a notebook. The notebook belonged to a student of the professor, who took thorough and detailed notes in class. The professor had come up with the idea of the gene therapy while he was teaching a class, and had speculated out loud about it. The student's notes were dated two years before the Australians' record of their research. In the end, the arbitrator awarded the professor and his group the patent.

This story wonderfully illustrates why keeping good records must be a priority while you work on your invention. If your patent application is challenged or if you discover someone has infringed on it, good documents may well be the key to winning the dispute.

Here are some more reasons why you should keep records of your progress:

• You will need good records to prove that you are the inventor.
• Good records are an indication that you are careful and methodical about your work; they show you are reliable. Think of them as evidence of your character.
• Good records can help you at income-tax time by establishing deductions for expenses relating to your invention, and to stave off the IRS if you're audited.
• Good records may prove that you had the idea first.
• Good records may prove that you were the first to turn the idea into a physical object or specific process. Patent people call this act a "reduction to practice."
• Good records help establish that your idea is new and original.
• Good records can stimulate creativity and help you analyze your work.

This checklist outlines what you should do to ensure that your invention and your rights in it will be protected.

How to Record Data

• Use a bound lab book. If the book is bound, your opponents will have a hard time arguing that you doctored the records, because it will be handwritten and you cannot insert pages later. If you can't find a lab book, use a bound composition book, which should be available at an office-supply store. (Keep the receipt!)
• Write your name and address on the front cover or flyleaf and the date you began to keep the lab book.
• If the book does not have the pages numbered already, do it yourself.
• If you have a book that does not have signature lines at the bottom of the page for your witnesses, add them. Here's an example of what it might look like:

• Write each entry by hand and with ink.
• Date every entry.
• A good practice is to start your day by opening your lab book and writing the date right away, before you start working on your invention.
• Have witnesses sign the entry on the same day as it is written, after it is in fact written.
• If you get behind, say so right up front, and state when the work was actually done. Be candid, like, "I forgot." Then write up your entry.
• Write the way you talk. How would you describe your work that day to a friend? What did you learn? Use short sentences.
• Make rough sketches or diagrams if appropriate.
• Don't leave blank gaps on the page.
• If you want a physical separation between two items, draw a diagonal line or cross through the open space.
• If you like to start each day on a new page, draw a diagonal line or cross through any gap on the previous day's page between the end of your entry to the bottom of the page just before your witnesses's signatures.
• Don't use correction fluid to fix mistakes. Don't use an eraser, either.
• Fix a mistake by drawing a straight line through it and writing a brief note about why the item was incorrect, which you can put in the margin nearby.
• Don't scribble things out with a snarly line or a filled-in block of ink. Use a straight line.
• If you have lots of changes to an entry, or want to update it, don't write them in on the earlier entry. Instead, record them and date them as if you were presenting the information for the first time and cross-reference the earlier entry using the date and page numbers where that earlier entry is.
• Try to record your work directly in your lab book as you go. This will save you the task of transferring data from your rough notes.
• Don't use the lab book as a catch-all for your random thoughts or for every calculation you make.
• Err on the side of completeness.