Will having a patent pending help your chances for being admitted to a college?

Applying to College
1

My D has invented something that she is looking to patent.

  • Will having a patent pending help her chances for being admitted to a college?
  • Does it matter if the application is for a provisional or nonprovisional patent application?
  • Will it help more if the patent relates to her intended major?
2

If it’s innovative and related to her other long term demonstrated interests and strengths then yes, it may help a little.

As too many techy parents help their kids getting patents and develop apps, it doesn’t carry much weight any more.

3

It’s likely a plus, but there are a couple small risks. One is that an AO might evaluate the patent claim on the merits; for example, existence of “prior art” will cause a patent application to be denied. Another risk is that many in academia take a dim view of IP laws apart from copyright, and may turn up their noses for that reason. But if your daughter has invented something that she wants to patent, by all means proceed, but consider it separate from the college application. You will need a patent attorney and it can be an expensive and time consuming process.

4

Anybody with a few thousand dollars can hire a patent attorney and have a patent pending. Since it takes a few years for the patent office to process them It will comfortably span the admissions season. Admission officers are not trained patent lawyers so they have no idea of the merits. To me this doesn’t seem much different than parents who can afford to send their kids on overseas volunteer missions .

5

Nobody can predict but unless it is for something major I don’t think it will be considered all that different from other achievements in ECs, research etc. Likely the work behind the patent pending (ex. did the student do research to come up with the product, did the student build prototypes that are in use etc.) will be more important that the pending patent itself.

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6

@Riversider @happy1
Thanks for the comment. The invention is a bit outside of her intended major, and it is just on paper now. I’ll look into having her build a prototype. This should also help refine the design and add some alternative embodiments.

7

@mikemac @damon30 Since I’m a patent attorney myself, there won’t be any cost in getting the application prepared other than the filing fees. Yor’re right about the patent office taking more than a year to even issue the first office action, so it’ll only be filed and “patent pending” by the time she applies to colleges this fall.

8

@damon30
I never heard that “many in academia take a dim view of IP laws apart from copyright”. What is the thinking behind this?

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9

My daughter did a capstone engineering project in HS for which her instructor and school did preliminary patent exploration. It was too costly to pursue but the process resulted in regional awards, fabulous LORs, and fodder for some essays. The knowledge of the process also helped during interviews. It was a great learning experience and IMO, can only be a positive.

10

It’s not a big tip, just another choice of how to use one’s time. I’d compare it to kids who start a non-profit (not necessary) or who think an app that earns them big bucks will get them in. It won’t overcome an otherwise non-match. It can be better to devote the time to ECs that are relevant to the colleges.

11

The first part is true, the second part may or may not be true. The ideal would be for them to know enough about the subject area to be impressed, but not be so knowledgable that they spot flaws in the patent application. And you don’t want a conversation like this:

AO Steve: “Hey Brenda, this is your field. She’s applying for a patent. Whaddya think?”
Brenda: (reading) …“Ha. There have been many papers on this; she’ll never get the patent.”
Steve: “Oh.”

@Gregmacd - So you are a patent attorney yourself? That’s relevant to your OP questions, don’t you think? It means (or should mean) that your daughter’s invention is legit, and the patent has a good chance of being approved. But then that also adds the aspect of parental involvement. As to your question, of course there is a great deal of variability in attitudes (or “thinking”, as you put it) on IP law between, say, an elite private institution with a highly successful technology transfer and licensing operation versus a state university that doesn’t have the same commercial focus. And then there are the views like: http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=1981

12

@Damond30 What state university doesn’t have a commercial focus on IP? That tends to be one of the primary missions of state universities.

https://www.warf.org/about-us/about-us.cmsx

or

https://techtransfer.umich.edu/

are two good examples.