The patent examination process is complex, confusing and difficult, so understanding what to expect is essential to surviving it and actually getting an issued patent.
This video explains how rejections are a natural and expected part the of the patent examination process and how back-and-forth between the applicant and patent examiner can result in an issued patent by the patent examiner being convinced that the invention as claimed is new and non-obvious in view of the prior art.
During the patent examination process, what are the most common rejections that patent applications get? How serious are these rejections and how do you overcome them. This list includes restriction requirements, 35 USC 112 clarity and lack of enablement rejections, 35 USC 101 or Alice rejections for ineligible subject matter, 35 USC 102 novelty rejections, and 35 USC 103 Obviousness rejections.
Definition: What is the definition of intellectual property or IP and how do you define intellectual property or IP? This video fully explains what IP (intellectual property) is including the four types of IP: patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets. I also discuss how these these types of IP are similar and different and how multiple types of IP can protect a given product. If you are looking for and IP definition or to have IP defined, then this is definitely the video for you.
The Top 5 low cost patent and IP strategies that most people don’t know about or use. May of these patent and IP strategy are free or low cost. The list includes: the “circle C” copyright marking, the “TM” trademark marking, patent pending marking, using published patent applications in marketing and selectively splitting a patent application into multiple patent applications or patents to increase the value of your patent portfolio. These, free, cheap and low cost patent and IP strategies are a MUST for any startup.
So what is a patent? This video explains what a patent is, what patents can protect, and how you can get one for yourself. If you want to protect your ideas and inventions, this video will give you the basics of how a patent can help you do this. Put simply, a patent is a limited monopoly, granted by the government, that allows the owner to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering to sell or importing the patented invention into the country or region that granted the patent.
The video includes:
– Patents are a negative right
– Limited term that cannot be extended
– Patents are enforceable only in the specific country that granted the patent
-What things can be patented?
– Patents are a form of IP or Intellectual Property
-Trademarks, Copyrights, & Trade Secrets are the other three types of IP
– Patents protect utilitarian inventions whereas copyrights protect artistic works
– Trademarks protect names, logos or other marks that differentiate goods and services
-Patents protect a wide variety of utilitarian inventions
– You can only get a US patent by filing a patent application at the USPTO
– The patent will be granted if the invention is new and non-obvious in view of prior art.
List of the Top 5 mistakes that startups make with patents including: filing a patent application too late, filing a patent application too early, not filing a provisional patent application first, over investing in foreign patent assets and filing a weak provisional patent application that does not have sufficient detail.
The Top 5 Hidden Patent Benefits. This video discusses benefits of patents that are often overlooked by inventors and startups including making a company more attractive to potential investors, partners, employees; creating uncertainty for potential competitors or copiers; and the defensive benefit of published patent applications and patents.
Choosing when to start the patent process is a critical decision for startups. Waiting too long can result in your patent rights being inadvertently forfeited, but filing too early can be a waste of precious capital that locks you into a timeline of costs that your company may not be prepared for.
The right time to file a patent application is ultimately based on a combination of business and legal factors, which unfortunately is why there is a lot of bad information out there when it comes to patents for startups. Admittedly, bad information sometimes even comes from well-meaning patent attorneys who don’t understand the unique needs and life cycle of startups and who instead plan patent protection in a legal vacuum that fails to account for the business impact of patents.
This post walks you through the legal and business considerations for when to start the patent process and how to make a patent plan for your unique business.
The short answer is no, but yes. This post explains why and illuminates how software, apps and computer-related products can be protected by patents.
When people ask “is software patentable?,” they are typically an inventor or developer of a product that runs on software, and they want to know if they can protect their invention. For example, it might be a smartphone app, a website, or a device or system that uses software to perform various functions. The real question is therefore whether software-related inventions can be patented. The answer to this question is YES. Unfortunately, the “how” of protecting these inventions is what often leads people to the wrong answer.
An issued patent allows the owner to exclude others from making, using, selling or offering an invention covered by the “claims” of the patent. These claims are analogous to the legal description of real estate. Just as a deed defines the bounds of land that is owned, patent claims define the bounds of intellectual property that is owned. Under the current state of patent law, patents cannot specifically lay claim to software. For example a patent claim that recites “a software product that performs functions X, Y, Z, etc.” would not be allowed.
However, a patent claim to “a computer configured to perform functions X, Y, Z, etc.” could be patentable. A patent claim to “a computer implemented method that includes the steps of X, Y, Z, etc.” could also be patentable. A patent claim to “a computer readable medium that configures a computer to perform functions X, Y, Z, etc.” could also be patentable.
Accordingly, while software itself is not literally patentable, software is effectively patentable by drafting a patent application in the right way. This illustrates one of the many reasons why working with a patent attorney is so important, especially for software-related inventions.
The takeaway here is that software-related inventions can be protected with patents by protecting a computer system that performs certain functions, a computer implemented method, and/or a non-transient memory that configures a computer to do things. However, don’t focus on these technical details when working with your patent attorney to protect a software-related invention. Instead, focus on the functionalities of the app, device or system that you want to protect and let your patent attorney handle the minutiae of patent law that dictates how this is done. Patent law is always in flux, and a good patent attorney will know how to protect software-related inventions as the law changes.
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