Patents

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PatentsA patent is a grant made by a government that confers upon the creator of an invention the sole right to make, use, and sell that invention for a set period of time.

Differences

• Copyright – Protects a creation from being duplicated without the owners consent unless for fair use

• Trademark – Protects a company’s image from being represented by someone else

Requirements for a patent• the scope and content of the prior art;• the level of ordinary skill in the prior art;• the differences between the claimed

invention and the prior art; and• objective evidence of nonobviousness.

Some examples that show nonobviousness are:•commercial success;•long-felt but unsolved needs; and•failure of others.

Getting a Patent

• Person applying for a patent must be inventor• Application (3 types)

– Utility (Useful machines)– Design (Artistic design for goods)– Plant (invent or discover)

• Can be submitted over the internet

U.S. Patent History

• 1790 - First national patent system

• Early form of Federal support for science

• Established by congress to help protect inventors and scientists’ market share of their creation.

Lincoln

• "The patent system added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius.“ - Abraham Lincoln

• Patented an invention that allowed ships to become more buoyant in shallow conditions so they wouldn’t get stuck

Software Patent History• Software was not originally patentable, as it was

seen as a mathematical algorithm.• In 1981 the first software related patent was issued

for a device that calculated and controlled the heating of rubber.

• In the early 1990’s the patent policy was revised to allow computer programs that manipulate numbers that represent concrete, real world values.

• In 1998, the State Street Bank & Trust v. Signature Financial Group allowed software and data structures to be patentable.

Who would want a patent?Organizations that want to protect their intellectual property. Some feel that copyrights and trade secrets are not always enough to protect the underlying function in a computer program.

Problems with software patents• Virtually every bit of code can be patented,

making infringement impossible to avoid.

• The huge number of software patents filed is mostly due to by large software companies feeling that they need to protect themselves against the threat of competitors using patents as weapons against them. Even open source projects are forced to get patents.

• It is too costly to determine if a piece of software infringes upon a patent.

Problems with software patents

• The format in which software inventions are disclosed in patents (plan language text, flow charts, line drawings, etc.) is not particularly useful.

• A great deal of time and effort is wasted on patent filings, prosecution, and maintenance, litigation and licensing.

Pros

• Patent holder must release all secrets to the public

• Patents are supposed to stimulate further invention and promote investment in research and development

• Companies can make sizeable profits by licensing out patented code

Litigation companies

• Extract patent revenue without producing any real value.

• Fund the legal expenses of a lawsuit (typically 2 to 10 million US dollars) for a small company. In exchange, the litigation company receives a substantial fraction of the settlement.

"If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today...The solution is patenting as much as we can. A future startup with no patents of its own will be forced to pay whatever price the giants choose to impose. That price might be high. Established companies have an interest in excluding future competitors.“ –Bill Gates

Google

• Google has a search engine for existing patents

• http://www.google.com/patents