Patents grant inventors the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, importing, or selling the invention in the United States. Here's how to get a U.S. patent on your idea or invention without a lawyer.Follow these steps to do a patent search and file a patent application yourself. It is possible to prepare and file your own provisional patent application. Suffolk owns a patent directed to methods and systems for controlling a server that supplies files to computers rendering web pages. I was awarded my first patent. Apparently, it's also Suffolk University's first patent. Suffolk owns a patent directed to methods and systems for controlling a server that supplies files to computers rendering web pages. The specification, including the description, claims, and abstract, must have lines that are 1.5 or double-spaced in a single column of text. DISCLAIMER: Every invention and patent application is different.