Cardigan Gates Program: How to Apply for a U.S. Patent

In less than three weeks, teams of inventors will set up shop in Wallach and pitch their ideas to judges, parents, classmates, and the community during the 18th Annual Charles C. Gates Invention & Innovation Competition. Many of the boys are hoping their inventions will win a coveted Patent Nod––acknowledging the marketability of their inventions and providing them with the funding to begin the application process for a U.S. Patent. 

But let’s rewind a year to the 2025 competition, when the judges awarded four Patent Nods:

• Jump Pack by Luca Carbone ’27, Jackson Vikse ’27, and Derek Zhou ’27
• Magna Guard by Baxter Hunt ’28, Ross Navins ’28, and Tom Rinkin ’28
• Night Ride by Oliver Ellis ’27, Maxwell Gu ’27, and Kross Pelletier ’27
• Backpack Buddy by JJ Cheung ’27, Angelo Chu ’27, and William Wang ’27

Many of these students are no longer a part of the Gates program; some admittedly are not even Cardigan students. But, their projects live on, and several of their teammates are working to see their products through the patent process. It’s a journey that began last fall when students returned to campus.

Step 1: Take a Master Class in Patent Law

In October, Gates judge and patent attorney Tom Kennedy returned to campus and provided Gates students with a crash course in product design and the patent application process. Mr. Kennedy holds over 250 U.S. patents and 150+ international patents, and through his firms––Legal Innovative Solutions and Chemical Innovative Solutions––he supports clients in intellectual property and materials science. During his visit with Gates students this past fall, he gave them the vocabulary to talk about their inventions and understand their patentability. He also helped them access and navigate the library of U.S. Patents to make sure their ideas were unique and undocumented.

“There are several very positive aspects to working with Cardigan Mountain School and the Gates Invention & Innovation Program,” says Mr. Kennedy. “One of the standout experiences is discussing the various components of the invention, innovation, and patent process with the young men and, with at first a pause to consider, seeing the light of understanding and invention show in the young men's faces. Wallach Center uniquely fosters this spark of creativity.”

Outside of class, Mr. Kennedy also met individually with the students who had been awarded Patent Nods in 2025, reviewing their products and helping them to refine their drawings. He also helped them understand the different types of patents––provisional, design, and utility––and which best fit their product. 

“Watching and helping the students step over the threshold from conception to invention, going from ‘Could we?’ to ‘We can!’ is truly a thrilling and fulfilling experience,” says Mr. Kennedy.

Step 2: Refine Designs

With their newly acquired knowledge, students got to work immediately and with a bit of urgency; a patent application must be filed within 12 months of when the product is first publicly disclosed (April 25, 2025, in their case). And because the patent application process is not part of the standard Gates curriculum, the students needed to work with Director of Gates Jenny Sabados, during study halls and advisory blocks. 

“It’s nice because there was no pressure since nothing was graded,” says Baxter Hunt ’28, who is one of three members of team Magna Guard (Their invention is an ice skate guard with design details that include magnets for a secure fit and drain holes to prevent rust.) “But it’s also harder because it’s not as structured. Cardigan has definitely made the process easy, but it’s still been hard to find time to work on projects outside of class.” 

For the teams representing Magna Guard, Night Ride, and Backpack Buddy, their applications focused on the unique design aspects, not the usability, of their product; they applied for design patents, which cover the visual and unique appearance of a product. Jump Pack, however, was seeking a provisional patent, an intermediary step that locks in a product’s “patent pending” status for 12 months while a utility patent is applied for. A utility patent requires its inventors to demonstrate a unique and non-obvious use for their product. 

Step 3: Send Designs to Patent Attorney

Once students finalized their designs, they sent them to Mr. Kennedy, who worked with a rendering company to convert them into high-quality technical digital drawings. This step allowed for back and forth between the students and the designers in order to ensure that the drawings accurately represented the students’ particular specifications.

“Mr. Kennedy was really helpful,” says Ross Navins ’28, who was also on team Magna Guard. “He helped make sure that we did everything right so our application won’t be rejected. I learned a lot about the legal stuff involved in getting a patent.”

Step 4: Submit Patent

With the help of Mr. Kennedy and the permission of students’ parents, students submitted their patent applications to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

“There’s a lot of wait time,” says Oliver Ellis ’27, who was one of three student-inventors of Night Ride, a collapsible system of lights used for mountain biking after dark. “We won’t hear if we got a patent until next year when we are ninth graders. Then we’ll have to figure out how to make and sell our product.”

Step 5: In the Meantime

In the meantime, several of these Patent Nod winners are now seventh graders and are in their second year of Gates, preparing for another Charles C. Gates Invention and Innovation Competition. With names for their inventions like Soap-It-Up 6000, Chillmuff, and EcoFish, the boys are bound to have some creative solutions to everyday problems. Some may even be worthy of a Patent Nod. If you are on campus, stop by Wallach to witness the hard work students are putting into their prototypes and presentations for the 18th annual contest on April 24.