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
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