Patent Innovations and Strategy for Engineers and Entrepreneurs IEOR 190G
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Transcript of Patent Innovations and Strategy for Engineers and Entrepreneurs IEOR 190G
Patent Innovations-Berkeley-Lavian
3rd week 1
Patent Innovations and Strategy for Engineers and Entrepreneurs
IEOR 190GCET: Center for Entrepreneurship
&Technology 3rd Week
Dr. Tal Lavian(408) 209-9112
[email protected] 225A Bechtel
Mondays 4:00-5:45
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Students Presentations
• Students’ presentations• Topics on patent engineering in litigated
cases
• Some examples from last semester: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~tlavian/spring2008/patentEngineering.html
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Students Presentations • Present in 10-15 min a patent litigation case • Case summary
• Parties, dates, history, issue in dispute, results
• Engineering aspects of the dispute• The patent(s), technology, product• Engineering aspects of the infringement • The engineering view vs. the legal view
• Any proposed design around
• The iPod touch screen patent – Need 4 volunteers
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Recent Patent Verdicts & SettlementsOr – Why it is really important?
• Alcatel/ Lucent v. Microsoft. - (2007) - $1.5 Billion
• NTP – Settled with RIM for $612M (plus $53M litigation plus verdict)• Intergraph – over $880M in settlement from patent litigation with Intel, HP
and others• Eolas v. Microsoft (2003). $506M Jury verdict• Immersion v. Sony (2004). $82M jury verdict plus royalties
– increased (2007) to $150M– vibration game controller - Microsoft settlement on $26
• Freedom Wireless v. BCGI (2005) $128 jury verdict• Finisar v DirectTV (2006). 103M (79+24)Jury verdict plus injunction • Tivo v. EchoStar (2006). $74M jury verdict plus injunction • Acacia - $60M in licensing revenue (2004-2—6)• Forgent - $100M in licensing revenue 2004-2006
Bell Labs Case - The Technology
Late 1980’s, Inventors James Johnston and Joseph Hall (Bell Labs, division of AT&T)
Quantizing noise – approximation of continuous range by values by relatively small set of discrete values.
Invented method and apparatus to produce quantized audio signal using interpolated scale factor.
V.V.
Advantage - Data compression – Same or similarsignal can be represented with less data
Bell Labs Patents
• Filed: Dec 1988 • Assignee: Bell Laboratories• U.S. Patent No. 5,341,457, Perceptual
Coding of Audio Signals, to Joseph L. Hall and James D. Johnston (Dec 1988)
• U.S. Reissue Patent No. RE39,080, Rate loop processor for perceptual encoder/decoder, to James D. Johnston (Dec 1988, Reissued Sep 1994)
Bell Labs MS Case
• In 2003, Lucent files suit against Gateway, Dell, and eventually Microsoft in U.S. District Court, San Diego, CA.
• Claim: Infringed two patents developed by Bell Labs in MP3 compression and playback within Microsoft Windows Media Player
• Sought 0.5% royalty of total Windows computers sold
The Case
• Microsoft claims:• Received license for MP3 technology from
Fraunhofer Institute (Bell Lab’s parent research organization) for flat $17 million.
• Loop processor not applicable for WMP application.
• 0.5% rate exorbitant! “Only one of 10,000 features” • The Proportioned Doctrine
..
The Results• Ruling agreed that patents were developed by
Bell Labs before joining with Fraunhofer to create MP3
• Rights to patents exceeded value of $17 million paid for license
• February 22, 2007, Alcatel-Lucent awarded record $1.5 billion in damages from Microsoft. Jury unable to find ‘willful’ infringement for $4.5 billion damages.
• August 6, 2007, Microsoft granted retrial. Verdict overturned based on insufficient evidence by Judge Rudi Brewster.
..
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Patent History• Created by Congress in 1790
– “…to promote the progress of science and the useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.”
• Article 1, Section 8• July 31, 1790 – 1st Patent
– Samuel Hopkins patents potash– Cost : $4.00
• Reviewed by Cabinet Members– Thomas Jefferson – Secretary of State– Henry Knox – Secretary of War– Edmund Randolph – Attorney General– George Washington – President
www.uspto.gov, www.ipo.org
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More Patent History
• 3 Patents Awarded in 1790– First patent law enacted
• 1802 – US Patent and Trademark Office Created– Responsibility of granting patents/registering
trademarks
• Atomic Energy Act of 1954– Excludes nuclear purposes/atomic weapons
• American Inventors Protection Act (1999)– Most recent revision of patent laws
• New Legislation debate – 2008-9www.uspto.gov, www.ipo.org
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US Constitution
• Rights are derived directly from US constitution, Article 1, section 8– granting congress the power to promote the
progress of science and useful arts by securing for a limited time to authors and inventors the exclusive rights to their respective writings and discoveries
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What is a Patent?
• A form of intellectual property• A grant of property right to an inventor by the
government• Prevents the invention from others for the duration
of the patent • In return, the inventor must fully disclose the
details of the invention to the public
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What is a Patent? (Cont.)
• Right to Exclude the Making, Using, Selling , Offering for Sale or Importation of a Specified Invention– Limited Time (Typically 20 Years from date
of filing with USPTO)– Limited Geographic Territory (issuing
country)• Monopoly awarded by the Government for
sharing the Invention with the public
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Protecting the Idea
• Protecting the idea, not the embodiment
• Allowed to claim broader than the physical embodiment
• Protection:– Limited rights during the life of the patent
• Filing to end• Issue to end
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What can be patented?• “Everything under the sun made by man.”
– Products: things– Processes: ways to make things– Methods: ways to do things– Improvements: better things
• Defined Classes– Article of Manufacture– Machine– Composition– Process
• Some more:– Business Methods – Services – Software
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Criteria – Legal Standards• Novelty
– Does not exist in the prior art– Not previously disclosed to public– OK if Modification/Improvement of an existing product/process, or use of something “old” in new/different way
• Usefulness - Utility - Performs a useful function• Non-obviousness
– Non-trivial - It would not have been obvious to one skilled in the art to combine multiple items in the public domain to arrive at or show the invention – Not Engineer’s normal sense of “obviousness”!
• Enabled
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What Is Not Patentable
• Laws of nature (wind, gravity)• Physical phenomena (sand, water)• Abstract ideas (mathematics, a
philosophy) – Algorithms per se
• Anything not useful, Novel and Non-Obvious (perpetual motion machine)
• Inventions which are offensive to public morality or designed for an illegal activity
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Statutory Bars
• Patent rights to an invention will be lost if:– The invention is used publicly– The invention is sold or offered for sale– The invention is published in a printed
publication or a patent – Before the filing of a patent application
• (more than one year in U.S.)
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Prior Art
• Information prior to the date of a patent application
• Existing relevant technology
• Can be your own technology or acts
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Foreign Standards for Prior Art
• “Absolute novelty” • The invention must not have been disclosed
or available to the public at any time before the filing of the application
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Utility Patents
• What is patentable?
• New and useful…– Process– Machine– Manufacture– Composition of matter– Improvements
• What is unpatentable?– Prior existing technology
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Utility Patent Types
• Two types of US Utility Patents– Provisional application– Non-Provisional application
• Continuation• Divisional• CIP• PCT International
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Other Types of Patents
• Design Patents: are issued for– Novel, non-obvious – Ornamental design in an article of
manufacture – In other words, for its appearance– The term of a design patent is 14 years
from the date of grant
• Plant Patent– new or discovered asexually reproduced
plant
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Types of Patents
Type Is for Term #s
Utility Function, use
20 years 6,214,874
Design Appearance 14 years D202,331
Plant Asexually reproduced
20 years PP10123