This is a quick post (after all, it will be outdated in a week) letting you know that the USPTO is putting on a free conference for inventors, makers and entrepreneurs (they could have just said “innovators”).
I’ve been to these conferences in person. I can’t vouch for the efficacy of a Zoom conference, but the in person ones were well worth it (in part, though, because of the informal opportunities to meet other inventors, which is less likely in a virtual setting).
Details are here: https://www.uspto.gov/about-us/events/invention-con-2025-empowering-american-ingenuity-and-innovation
Added Sept. 3, 2025: I want to emphasize how helpful these conferences can be. There are some people who attend who just don’t understand patents at all (like the woman who argued at length with a supervisory patent examiner at a conference I went to a decade ago, insisting that adding a different color to the sole of a shoe makes it eligible for a utility patent — it isn’t), but overall people are there to explore whether it is still possible to channel their inner Edison and make a living as an inventor. The Edison/Bell/Tesla/Whitney/Ford/Berners-Lee version of the American Dream — that you can become a success by inventing — has faded, with the occupation “inventor” last appearing as an job in the 1930 US Census.
The short answer is “yes, you can become a success as an inventor — provided you have the bankroll needed to get past the paywall of lawyers of filing fees that a patent requires.” For many people outside of the U.S., there are government programs that help with that paywall, such as Canada’s ElevateIP or the EU’s SME fund.
I went to a conference at the USPTO over a decade ago and signed up for a 1 on 1 meeting with a patent examiner. After all, you never get the chance to just talk with an examiner outside of the context of a specific patent, so I was excited about the prospect. I got to meet inventors from around the country. It was well worth the trip.