Organic product - patent, trademark, what?

[Fallenangel76]

Writing from California:
My mother practices Oriental medicine and has her Masters. She have these natural "remedies" that she came up with that she wants to sell. There is this product that she created which relieves arthritis and/or any joint pains in the hand and arms. Shes tested on a few of her friends and I've given it to a few of my co-workers to try and it seems to work. This particular product does not contain any chemicals, it's not a pill, powder, or liquid form. It's actually a fruit soaked in a type of alcohol and some other herbs.

1. How does she go about marketing this? Does she need to get her invention patent, tradmark? What is it when it comes to organic food?

2. Does this have to go through the FDA for approval?

3. How do I go about researching for packaging information? I understand that the packaging also has to meet federal/state/local compliance?

4. HER MAIN CONCERN: One of the ingredient is alcohol, how does this affect approval/complying with federal/state regulations?

I'm really lost in helping my mother search for her answers. I'm not quiet sure where to start with my searches.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[divgradcurl]

To protect your product, you would need a patent. A patent for a natural remedy would need to meet all of the same requirements of any other utility patent -- utility, novelty, non-obviousness. I am not certain about what the FDA regulations might be, but they are not really relevant to patentability, unless you need to go to Phase-2 studies to show enough therapeutic efficacy to meet the utility requirement...

If you've given the invention to coworkers and others more than a year ago, there may be a bar to obtaining a patent -- just something to keep in mind, you only have a year after your first public disclosure to file for a patent.

1. To protect the invention, either file for a patent or keep it a trade secret -- although a trade secret.

2. Maybe, you'll need to talk with someone who knows FDA regulations to be sure. If you do, give up now...

3. This would be FDA, I imagine, or department of commerce regulations.

4. See 2.

Good luck.