PATENTS AND PATENT SEARCHES – AN INVENTOR’S PERSPECTIVE

Tyler Johnson

Topics

• To patent or not?• Uses for patent searches• Patent search examples• Q & A

Should you patent your idea?

Reasons to Patent• Idea is “novel” and “non-obvious”• Prevent others from using your IP

• Difficult if it’s software

• Easier if it’s a physical device, molecule, or if it’s difficult to work around a patent

• Protect your right to use your IP• May be needed if others are patenting similar ideas

• Protect the physical look/feel of a device (design patent)

• Competitor with patent(s) who are likely to sue

Reasons not to patent• Alert competitors to your presence• Even granted patent may not

protect you• Give others ideas on how your

design works• Idea is too early• Time/Cost

“Novel” inventions – A matter of perspective

Example: Patent 9,021,097 4/28/2015

“Unified cloud computing infrastructure to manage and deploy physical and virtual environments”

An entire industry segment invalidates IBM’s “granted” patent

Should you do a patent search?

IP protection Competitive Analysis Recruitment Ideation

YES (Usually)

• Most product companies should do at least a cursory search

• Service companies should do a search if their service business has a really innovative process.

Reasons to search

Patent Search Example

Key Steps• Search for CPC codes and

keywords by searching competitor’s names

• Perform patent and patent application searchs

• Record application number, inventors, etc.

Key links

• US PTO • http://www.uspto.gov/patents-application-process/search-patents

• Patent advanced search• http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/search-adv.htm

• Patent application advanced search• http://appft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/search-adv.html

• USPTO Guide• http://www.uspto.gov/patents-application-process/search-patents

Patent Experience

• 22 US patents granted• 6 International patents granted• 30+ patent applications

United States Patent System and method for generating a trigger signal 

7,348,799

List of US Patents

Q&A