The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) encourages independent inventors who are not patent professionals to file and prosecute their own patent applications. Self-help books are useful guides for navigating through the PTO’s many laws and rules. When an inventor has an idea, he should document it, have the document witnessed, search all public records for novelty and unobviousness, and finally file an application with the PTO. The inventor defends his idea with an Examiner from the PTO and, if all requirements are met, receives a patent that grants the inventor a monopoly to make, use, and sell his invention for a period of time.