Invention Law

Amortizing Patents, Copyrights and Other Intangible Property

Intangible assets include intellectual property -- patents, copyrights, trade secrets and trademarks. Just like tangible things like equipment and...

Depreciating and Expensing Long Term Asset Costs

Special tax rules apply to purchases of long-term property four your inventing business--this is property with a useful life of over one year--for...

Deducting Invention Business Operating Expenses

Section 162 of the Internal Revenue Code provides that a taxpayer may deduct all the ordinary and necessary expenses paid or incurred during the ...

Deducting Research and Experimentation Expenses

If you learn only one section of the Internal Revenue Code, the one to learn is IRC Section 174 because it is the inventor’s best tax friend. Co...

Deducting Invention Start-Up Expenses

Start-up expenses are expenses you incur before you actually begin your invention business. Unlike business operating expenses, start-up expenses ...

Tax Deductions: How Much Do They Save Inventors?

Most inventors, even those who are sophisticatedbusinesspeople, don’t fully appreciate just how much money they can save with tax deductions. On...

Inventing as a Hobby or Business for Tax Purposes

If the IRS considers inventing to be your inventing to be a hobby -- not your business -- your blood pressure may rise. That’s because a hobbyis...

Taxes for Inventors with Employees

Whenever you hire an employee, you become an unpaid tax collector for the government. You are required to withhold and pay both federal and state ...

The IRS vs. Inventors

All inventors, particularly those who report deductible losses year after year, need to be concerned about IRS audits. In an audit, the IRS exami...

Income Tax Basics for Inventors

If you’re one of the fortunate independent inventors who earns a profit from inventing, you’ll discover that all levels of government -- feder...

Obtaining Insurance for Your Inventing Business

When you're running an inventing business you need business insurance. What type and how much you need depends on the extent of your business prop...

Inventors Who Incur Losses

If you’re one of the many inventors who -- as of yet -- earns no money at all from inventing, you’ll have no taxes to pay on your inventing bu...

Business Licenses for Inventors

Depending on the type of inventing you do and where you do it, the federal state or local government (or all three) may require you to have a lice...

Legal Restrictions on Inventing at Home

If you plan to do your inventing at home, you may have potential problems with your local zoning laws or with land use restrictions in your lease ...

Registering Your Business Name

In most states, a person or business entity transacting business in the state under a name other than their own “true name” must register that...

Choosing a Trade Name for Your Inventing Business

Your trade name is your public name -- the moniker that consumers and other businesses will use when contacting you. Once you have picked a legal ...

Choosing a Legal Name for Your Inventing Business

Your legal name is the official name of your inventing business. It is the name you must always use when you sign legal documents (for example, co...

Inventors Who Incorporate

Some inventors elect to form corporations to run their inventing businesses. However, incorporating is not necessarily best for every inventor. T...

Inventors who Form Limited Liability Companies

The limited liability company, or LLC, is the newest type of business form in the United States. An LLC is taxed like a sole proprietorship or par...

Inventors In a Partnership

If you work together with one or more co-inventors who share ownership of the business, you can't be a sole proprietor. Instead, if you don't form...

Inventors as Sole Proprietors

Most inventors are sole proprietors. However, this doesn't mean that a sole proprietorship is always the best legal form for every inventor.

Choosing the Legal Form for Your Inventing Business: What are Your Choices?

One of the most important decisions you make when you’re first starting out is how to legally organize your inventing business. There are several al...

Have a Brilliant Idea? Ten Things to Know About Inventions

Eureka! You just came up with the most dazzling idea for a new product or service. Not only that, you’ve figured out some extraordinarily clever pac...