Law.com:

There are some good reasons why your clients should patent their inventions, but there are even more good reasons why they should not.

Perhaps the best reason for your clients to patent their inventions is that they can make millions of dollars by enforcing those patents against those who make, use, or sell products embodying those inventions.

Assume, for example, that your client invented intermittent windshield wipers. You might think that that would certainly be a great invention for your client to patent, right? With such a patent, your client could collect millions and millions of dollars in royalty payments by enforcing that patent against automobile manufacturers.

But you would be wrong. Intermittent windshield wipers were patented in 1967 by Robert Kearns of Detroit, Mich., who made millions of dollars in royalty payments by enforcing his patent against automobile manufacturers. The rule is that only the first inventor of an invention is entitled to get a patent on that invention, and your client wasn’t the first inventor.

Patentability v. Marketability Continue reading this article.

Related posts:

1. When Should I Patent My Invention? Inventorspot: So, you want to sell your idea or a...
2. Before You File Patent Applications In The UK Lawdit Commercial Solicitors: Before you apply for a patent application...
3. Why All Small Businesses Need Software Patents IPWatchdog.com: Over the last week a heated debate has been...

Inventorspot:

So, you want to sell your idea or a patent? Here are some factors to bear in mind.

The companies who are your potential purchasers have different criteria for accepting new ideas. Typically, larger companies demand that you have either a patent or patent pending prior to even looking at your invention.

Other small to medium size companies may be willing to look at your ideas with no patent pending and without a prototype.

In fact, one notable U.S. hand tool manufacturer accepts ideas without a patent and without a prototype. If they like it they will build a prototype, test market it within the company, and you still have the opportunity to potentially patent it on your own, AFTER you know that a company sees value in your invention and wants!

See how dramatically different these two approaches are. One suggests that you at least initiate the substantial expense of applying for a patent, PRIOR to even submitting your invention to a company, and the other approach allows you to forego this expense until AFTER you at least get some indication as to the potential marketability and interest in your invention. Read full article.

Related posts:

1. Before You File Patent Applications In The UK Lawdit Commercial Solicitors: Before you apply for a patent application...
2. Protecting The Patent System For Entrepreneurs New York Times: Recently, a number of companies from the...
3. Why All Small Businesses Need Software Patents IPWatchdog.com: Over the last week a heated debate has been...

Lawdit Commercial Solicitors:
Before you apply for a patent application in the UK you should consider the following:

1. Is there another type of protection that is more appropriate to protect your invention?

You may also wish to consider these alternatives in addition to patent protection.

Confidential Disclosure Agreements and non-disclosure agreements
You must not tell anyone about your invention before you apply for it as this will make the patent invalid.

Therefore, if you intend to discuss your invention with third parties prior to applying for a patent, you should consider entering into a confidential disclosure agreements or a non-disclosure agreement with that party.

Plant breeders’ rights
Plant breeders’ rights are a form of intellectual property designed specifically to protect new varieties of plants.

Trade Secrets
A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design etc which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers.

Trade secrets can be kept secret beyond the term of a patent.

Continue reading this article.

Related posts:

1. Protecting The Patent System For Entrepreneurs New York Times: Recently, a number of companies from the...
2. Why All Small Businesses Need Software Patents IPWatchdog.com: Over the last week a heated debate has been...
3. How To Become An Entrepreneur Consultant SubmitYourArticle.com: To become an entrepreneur consultant you need to understand...

IPWatchdog.com:
Over the last week a heated debate has been raging here on IPWatchdog.com regarding whether patents should exist at all. See Reality Check: Anti-Patent Patent Musings Simply Bizarre and Responding to Critics: My View on Patents & Innovation. I have offered a point by point debate where everyone answers the same question in 300 to 500 words, and as yet I have no takers, so you can decide yourself why that is. Notwithstanding, this firestorm started when I questioned why any inventor or company would want a patent attorney representing them who has as his articulated position that 0 years of patent term is the most appropriate solution. If there are those out there who think a patent without any term or exclusive rights is best then they have the right to exercise their preference by simply ignoring patents altogether. Of course, when other companies do get patents and do use the rights and law to their benefit these same folks cry foul. Simply put, you cannot have your cake and eat it too! If you don’t like patents then don’t get them, but then also expect to be a target of all those in your industry who do get patents.

You see, this is the problem of the Patent Troll. The reason giant companies hate patent trolls is because they are not capable of being counter-sued. There is no deterrent effect because patent trolls do not make, use or sell anything, they just sue. So giant companies are targets in the same way that smaller companies without patents are targets of big companies with patents. No one should aspire to be a target. A simple truth is that a small business without patents might as well dress themselves up as a buck during hunting season complete with a bulls-eye pre-drawn. So here is the case for every business to get patents, particularly software patents. Ignore it if you like, but you do so at your own peril.

Read full article.

Related posts:

1. Protecting The Patent System For Entrepreneurs New York Times: Recently, a number of companies from the...

New York Times:
Recently, a number of companies from the information technology and financial services sectors have been pushing Congress to change the patent system.

The companies have been seeking passage of the Patent Reform Act of 2009 (H.R. 1260 and S. 515). So far, the legislation has been introduced in both the House and the Senate, and the Senate Judiciary Committee has reported out the bill.

Among the most important aspects of the proposed legislation are, one, a change in the way damages are calculated that would reduce the amount that a patent holder could collect in the event of infringement and, two, the creation of a mechanism for third-party-initiated administrative review of issued patents. These changes, though they may sound arcane, are not good for entrepreneurs. (Full disclosure: companies opposed to this legislation have financed some of my research.) Full article.

No related posts.

Fast Company:
Innovators don’t invent all by themselves: To paraphrase Isaac Newton, great inventors see further than others because they stand on the shoulders of giants.

Researchers at the Center for Technology Assessment hope to use that insight to clear out the enormous blacklog of U.S. patent applications, which is stifling American innovation simply because inventors must wait so long to get their patents approved and be assured of their intellectual property.

They argue that a social network for patents—which allows select volunteers to discuss patents and group analogous innovations—could greatly simplify the patent office’s most onerous task: Identifying so-called “prior art”—all the other inventions that inform and compete with any supposed new idea.

Already, the researchers have launched the “Peer-to-Patent” pilot project, outlined in the upcoming issue of the International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation. Similar experiments are underway in Britian and Europe.

Related posts:

1. Protecting The Patent System For Entrepreneurs New York Times: Recently, a number of companies from the...
2. Before You File Patent Applications In The UK Lawdit Commercial Solicitors: Before you apply for a patent application...
3. Why All Small Businesses Need Software Patents IPWatchdog.com: Over the last week a heated debate has been...

Worcester Business Journal:
1. Expensive Proposition
Don’t underestimate the time and cost. Patents are expensive, typically costing many thousands of dollars to have prepared and filed. Once filed, they often pend for several years before being approved.

2. Details, Details
A patent application must describe an invention in enough detail so someone “skilled in the art” can make and use the invention without undue experimentation.

3. Overseas Rules
Most foreign countries do not provide any one-year grace period, thus any public use or disclosure of an invention immediately prevents filing for a patent on that invention in most foreign countries.

4. Exceptions
If an invention has been offered for sale for MORE than one year, or has been in public use for MORE than one year, or was published MORE than one year ago, in most cases you no longer can file for patent protection on it.

5. Grace period
In the United States, if you publicly disclose an invention (offer for sale, publicly use, or publish in a publication), you have one year to file for patent protection on that invention. This grace period is for the U.S. only.

More patent tips here.

Related posts:

1. Before You File Patent Applications In The UK Lawdit Commercial Solicitors: Before you apply for a patent application...
2. Why All Small Businesses Need Software Patents IPWatchdog.com: Over the last week a heated debate has been...
3. Protecting The Patent System For Entrepreneurs New York Times: Recently, a number of companies from the...

E-Commerce Times:
As technology has advanced, the federal courts have routinely been tasked with interpreting what types of inventions are eligible for patent protection under the Patent Act. For example, in 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that human-made microorganisms were eligible for patent protection.

As the Information Age blossomed in the 1990s, the federal courts had to determine whether to extend patent protection to computer-implemented processes for manipulating information. Specifically, questions arose as to whether methods of doing business were patentable.

Method or Idea?
In 1998, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which has exclusive appellate jurisdiction for patent matters, answered the question in the affirmative. Its opinion in State Street Bank & Trust Co. v. Signature Financial Group held methods of doing business and manipulating data were patentable if the method “produce[d] a useful, concrete and tangible result.”

After the State Street decision, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) saw a dramatic increase in the number of patent applications filed to cover business methods. In response, the USPTO transitioned the group reviewing these applications to “become more business function focused.” In the decade following State Street, the federal courts, the USPTO, and innovators each struggled with applying the State Street patent eligibility test to the unique properties of this subject matter. Read on…

Related posts:

1. Before You File Patent Applications In The UK Lawdit Commercial Solicitors: Before you apply for a patent application...
2. Protecting The Patent System For Entrepreneurs New York Times: Recently, a number of companies from the...

Centre Daily Times:
Election week news was replete with headlines such as “Chinese hack into White House network” and “Foreign governments attack White House, Obama, McCain systems.” The scheduled subject of this month’s column — Patrick D. McDaniel, associate professor in Penn State’s computer science and engineering department and co-director of the Systems and Internet Infrastructure Security Laboratory — canceled our interview that week, the day before it was to take place, citing “an emergency.”

Perhaps this was a coincidence (only the lowest, unclassified White House system was breached), perhaps not. McDaniel serves on several executive and congressional cybersecurity committees.

Although the attacks occurred “over a period of months” beginning this summer, their impact was just publicly reported this month. The cyberattackers reportedly “accessed the White House computer system for brief periods, allowing them enough time to steal information before U.S. computer experts patched the system.”

A “serious amount of files” had been loaded off the systems of presidential candidates Barack Obama and John Mc- Cain — also by Chinese attackers. It was reported that these attacks were aimed at gaining policy/negotiating strategy and leverage.

Companies and academic/ educational institutions are also increasingly under attack. According to the annual Worldwide Infrastructure Security Report, released Nov. 11, distributed denial of service attacks were the greatest IT security challenge.

“For the first time, this year ISPs also describe a far more diversified security landscape, including significant concerns over domain name system spoofing, border gateway protocol hijacking and spam.” Read on…

Related posts:

1. Protecting The Patent System For Entrepreneurs New York Times: Recently, a number of companies from the...
2. Why All Small Businesses Need Software Patents IPWatchdog.com: Over the last week a heated debate has been...

ReadWriteWeb:
We live in an age when success of innovation is mixed with unprecedented failures. On one hand we’re reinventing the web, fighting for a greener future and building genomix. On the other there are housing bubbles, credit crises and war.

The technology patent crisis is important to our future. For decades the patent law served its purpose. Inventors used copyrights, trademarks and patents to protect their work and launch their innovations. But today’s technology intellectual property system is a failure – unable to keep up with the speed of innovation, it’s fallen apart.

The result? We live in an age of open source ideas. We freely borrow and build on each other’s solutions. At first glance this may seem fine, but there are important consequences that may change the way we innovate. What happens when a big company copies a startup? What happens when dozens of startups copy each other? Read more.

Related posts:

1. Protecting The Patent System For Entrepreneurs New York Times: Recently, a number of companies from the...
2. Before You File Patent Applications In The UK Lawdit Commercial Solicitors: Before you apply for a patent application...
3. Why All Small Businesses Need Software Patents IPWatchdog.com: Over the last week a heated debate has been...