Put their money where their mouth is

[Dave Roberts]

If President Obama and the International Community is so concerned about climate change, why don't they set up a commission to grant an international (no charge) patent for anyone who comes up with a verified design that will generate sustainable energy 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with no carbon or radiation output. They can even establish a minimum output (reasonable) to motivate inventors. The enormous cost of patents and legal problems is formidable. Of course, all nations who signed the climate treaty must agree. They will never do it because they are not that serious, this is just a cause to spread wealth to poorer nations.

[Fcdriver]

That was done sometime ago, they waived the fees to make special, which means one year instead of two to three, for anything that conserves energy, about 7 thousand in savings

[jim_mich]

From the book Patent it yourself:

If you qualify, file a simple “petition to make special� (PTMS) based on
• age
• poor health
• environmental enhancement
• conservation of energy, or
• countering terrorism.
There is no fee to file a simple PTMS in any of these five categories.

If you file based on age, your age must be 65 or greater. This category is so popular that the PTO has a special form for it and it will be granted automatically by the PTO’s server if you file it online. The form is PTO/SB/130 and you can fill it out and file it with your application. The Petition will be granted immediately online and the application will be made special and examined ahead of turn.

• I'm over age 65.
• I'm in poor health (Three months ago Doc said I had about two months to live.)
• A PM wheel helps enhance the environment by replacing carbon fossil fuels.
• A PM wheel helps conserves energy.
• It might even counter terrorism by eliminating fighting over oils fields?

This does nothing to reduce the cost of a patent to a small entity individual.
I might help with getting a foreign patent by shortening the the time to get a US patent.
Foreign patent applications must be filed within a year of US applications.

If you file as a micro entity then you get to pay lower fees.

A micro entity is anyone who is either (1) an independent inventor (a) who has not been named as an inventor in more than four nonassigned patent applications in their lifetime, and (b) whose gross income in the preceding calendar year is less than three times the median U.S. income, and (c) who has no obligation to assign and who has not assigned their application to a non-micro-entity, or (2) an employee of a college and who is obligated to assign their invention to the college.

[jim_mich]

If you keep the number of claims below certain limits, then the filing fee is $400.
Later there will be other fees, for instance when replying to the rejections, which will most surely come simply because it's a PM wheel. A PM wheel will require a meeting where the examiner examines the PM wheel. So you have expenses transporting your wheel to the PTO office in Virginia. Or you pay the examiner's travel costs and probably some hourly fee maybe?

PS. The big expense is for a patent lawyer, if you choose to use one.

[Dave Roberts]

I guess my point is that climate change has been deemed by our President to be a more serious threat than terrorism! That from a person who is the most heavily protected person in the world. If the climate change nations agree, they should all be agreeable to granting a free patent to anyone who produces a carbon free energy producing device!
If you file here, you apply and then have to file in every Country you want protection in. The cost is astronomical. Let alone all of the patent infringement lawsuits.
Looks like those who say "give it away" are in the right mind.

And yes Jim, you are correct about patent lawyers but if you want to patent,you are better off to patent it yourself to avoid ANY potential early exposure. I don't trust lawyers.