MobileTrainer's 3 Year Anniversary!

This Valentines Day marked MobileTrainer's 3 year anniversary of being Patent Pending! I came up with the concept of MobileTrainer back in December of 2005. This was back before there was even an iPhone. I wanted to create software to put on iPods and sync them up with a web site. This later became popular with  iPhone Applications. I guess you can say I was a step ahead in the game. I came up with this idea for The Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup Collegiate Business Plan Competition back in 2006. Back then I was called IntelliTech and MobileTrainer was called iFitness. Some of you may have heard of it, but there's an iPhone app out there called iFitness. I had to change the name of my application because they beat me to it. But, in a way, it is a good thing because MobileTrainer is no longer held down by being just a iPhone or iPod app. It can be used on any device that is internet enabled and has a web browser. This makes it better accessible for everyone.

So, back to the anniversary. I filed for a provisional patent on February 14, 2007. When you come up with an Idea and want it patented, you must file at least a provisional patent one year after you went public or told someone about the idea. I went public with my idea in late February 2006 so I had to file my provision or application before then. Well it just happened to be that I submitted my provisional application on Valentines Day! Good day to submit I guess considering I have almost married the idea and put everything I have into the success of the venture. I filed my provisional app myself by the way! It's not hard to do. Anyone can do it. All you have to do is basically give the most detailed explanation of the idea as you can. It can be a story of how you see it working or like I did you can give a breakdown of how it operates and what it does. Its not very expensive either. It cost just $100 to file for a provisional application. An actually patent application is going to be more difficult to file and will cost around $3-5,000 to have someone do it for you.

Some of you may wonder what the difference is between a Provisional Application and a Patent Application. A provisional application is basically a statement to the USPTO that you have this idea and want to submit a patent application but you want some time to do it. A provisional application gives you one year from the time that you file it to submit an actually Patent Application. It also lays claim that you came up with the idea at least one year before the time that you submitted the provisional app and you can start claiming that you are Patent Pending. Now you must file an actually Patent Application on or before the one year anniversary of your Provisional Application. The patent application must relate in some detail to your provisional application. It doesn't have to be exactly what you filed in the provisional, but it must be similar enough that you can relate the two.

With all that said, MobileTrainer has now been Patent Pending since Valentines Day, February 14, 2007. I can claim that I came up with the idea all the way back in 2006. The last time that I spoke to my Patent Examiner Kathleen Mosser this past summer, she said that I had between a year or year and a half before they would be getting to Examine my application. Hopefully it will be sooner than later! Well there is my story of MobileTrainer and it's anniversary. Hope you had a wonderful Valentines Day!