How to read a patent in 60 seconds (2010)
danshapiro.com
danshapiro.com
And then I heard from some start-up about another: - What are they offering?, they don't even have IP. Nobody is going to buy them...
I got to the conclusion that they are more than any other thing a way to demonstrate value for small companies and a tool for big companies to delay competition from new entrants. I haven't understood yet how patent offices take care of the prior art...
You file, buy, acquire, etc, a large enough portfolio of patents such that if another company sues you, your broad portfolio almost assures they are "violating" one of your patents. Now you have leverage to make the initial lawsuit go away.
I patented a thing while I was at university - there was some prior art but I'd come up with a neat solution (literally as well as figuratively) that actually worked - got as far as building a few prototypes.
I had a degree to finish, and barely managed to scrape the cash together for the UK and European patents. Let it sit, naively thinking that someone would want to develop this tech and would be in touch.
About six years ago a large corporation filed a patent that was substantially identical to mine - they replaced a spiral with a circle, as it's cheaper to manufacture, which, while covered by my claims, was secondary to the device. They shortly thereafter took the product to market. They did at least cite me in prior art.
From what I can gather it wasn't a commercial success, it added too much cost to the product it enhanced, but even if it had been, my recourse would've been the square root of fuck all.
So yeah. Patents are for corporations. They're there to stifle innovation and shut the small guy out.
Which is a shame, as that's literally the exact opposite of their purpose - they were developed to bring about a system that would release ideas to the public domain after a set period of benefit for their creator.
My "sit on it" behaviour is admittedly not their purpose, but neither was their "trample on it".
Which really only makes lawyers any money. Which honestly seems to be the main point of the patent system.
but don't tell the internet that
If you have a little money, file 1-2 key patents on your core ideas.
If you're rolling in money, hire a patent firm to chart the landscape for you in a way that doesn't expose you to willful infringement.
Note: the entire system is a steaming morass; I try to be pragmatic about it, but don't disagree with those who want to flip the table and ignore the whole mess.
If you think you might want a patent, don't hesitate to talk to a patent lawyer to make sure you are not waiving your rights, otherwise you'll regret it. You can always choose not to spend money on the patent application but make that decision after you know what you are doing.
IANAL, but I believe this is incorrect. My understanding is that if you don't follow up with a non-provisional ("real") patent application, the provisionals don't count as prior art, and in fact might as well not exist. This is because provisionals are not published and cannot be discovered until the corresponding non-provisional is published. Would prefer if an actual patent lawyer could confirm, however.
1) File provisional
2) Publicly disclose
3) Provisional expires
At this point, your public disclosure counts as prior art.
Most countries have a grace period[0] of 6 months to a year where you can still file for patents even after public announcement. The grace period is one year for US.
[0] http://mewburn.com/resource/grace-periods-for-disclosure-of-...
Don't read patents, you are exposing yourself to triple damages for knowing infringement.
If you need a patent search done, get someone else to do it
Wow.
You just skip to the part about fees, termination policy, what they'll do with your data, and call it a day.
http://patentlyo.com/patent/2008/05/theory-of-depen.html shows some reasons, but I don't find them terribly compelling.
Would one of our resident lawyers like to enlighten me? Is it really simply tactical, and in a perfect world they wouldn't be needed at all?
Independent claim: Self driving car. (You really hope you get this, but it's so broad, you probably won't).
First dependent claim: The previous claim, where in the self driving mechanism is an actuator applied to a gas pedal. (Now you're going after the specific way you accomplished the broad problem - hopefully, even if someone's patented a self driving car before, they did it some other way, so you can protect your preferred category of solutions, and force competitors to take a different approach).
Second dependent claim: the first dependent claim, where the actuator is a brick. (If all else fails, you've at least protected the precise mechanism that you used - not enough to keep out a competitor, but at least enough to preserve your unique solution).
The patent office will often strike the independent claims but leave some dependent claims around, so you craft them strategically to get at least some protection.
So it's simply for the process of getting a patent (and some cost issues with registration)? After the patent has been granted they are truly unnecessary?
If, later it turns out the big idea was not new, but the refinements are, then you may find yourself with an invalid independent claim but valid dependent claims (which are treated as though they stand on their own). Although you could have filed the dependent claim as independent just the same, it saves paper and cognitive time analyzing it, which is a good thing. And for that reason patent fees are more expensive if you add more independent claims rather than dependent.
But anyway, it was a great read.
" What is claimed is:
1. A method for using traffic categorization to select use of different network configurations in a wireless network, the method, comprising: detecting an activity state of an application on a mobile device which traffic is originated from or directed to; detecting a time criticality of data contained in the traffic to be sent between the mobile device and the host server; determining a timing with which to allow the traffic to pass through based on the activity state or the time criticality; controlling communication use on the mobile device based on the timing with which the traffic is allowed to pass through; and selecting a network configuration for use in sending traffic between a mobile device and a host server in the wireless network based on an activity state of an application on the mobile device for which traffic is directed to or originated from, wherein a network configuration with a slower data rate is selected when the application is not interacting with a user.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein, 3G, LTE, or 4G network is selected for passing through traffic when the application is active or when the data contained in the traffic is time critical.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein, the activity state is determined by whether the application is in a foreground or background state on the mobile device.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the activity state is determined based on whether a user is expecting data contained in the traffic directed to the mobile device.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein, when the data is not time critical, the timing with which to allow the traffic to pass through is set based on when additional data needs to be sent.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein a network configuration with a slower data rate is selected when the application is running in the background.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein a network configuration with a slower data rate is selection when the data contained in the traffic is not time critical.
8. A system for categorizing traffic in a wireless network, the system comprising: means for detecting an activity state of an application on a mobile device which traffic is originated from or directed to; means for detecting a time criticality of data contained in the traffic to be sent between the mobile device and the host server; means for determining a timing with which to allow the traffic to pass through based on the activity state or the time criticality; means for controlling radio use on the mobile device based on the timing with which the traffic is allowed to pass through; and means for selecting a network configuration in the wireless network for use in passing traffic to and from the mobile device, wherein a network configuration with a slower data rate is selected when the application is not interacting with a user.
9. The system of claim 8, wherein a 3G, LTE, or 4G network is selected for passing through traffic when the application is active or when the data contained in the traffic is time critical.
10. The system of claim 8, wherein, the activity state is determined by whether the application is in a foreground or background state on the mobile device.
11. The system of claim 8, wherein the activity state is determined based on whether a user is expecting data contained in the traffic directed to the mobile device.
12. The system of claim 8, wherein, when the data is not time critical, the timing with which to allow the traffic to pass through is set based on when additional data needs to be sent.
13. The system of claim 8, wherein a network configuration with a slower data rate is selected when the application is running in the background.
14. The system of claim 8, wherein a network configuration with a slower data rate is selection when the data contained in the traffic is not time critical.
15. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions which when executed by a processor causes the processor to perform a method for using traffic categorization to select use of different network configurations in a wireless network, the method comprising: detecting an activity state of an application on a mobile device which traffic is originated from or directed to; detecting a time criticality of data contained in the traffic to be sent between the mobile device and the host server; determining a timing with which to allow the traffic to pass through based on the activity state or the time criticality; controlling communication use on the mobile device based on the timing with which the traffic is allowed to pass through; and selecting a network configuration for use in sending traffic between a mobile device and a host server in the wireless network based on an activity state of an application on the mobile device for which traffic is directed to or originated from, wherein a network configuration with a slower data rate is selected when the application is not interacting with a user.
16. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein the method includes selecting a 3G, LTE, or 4G network for passing through traffic when the application is active or when the data contained in the traffic is time critical.
17. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein the method includes determining the activity state by whether the application is in a foreground or background state on the mobile device.
18. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein the method includes determining the activity state based on whether a user is expecting data contained in the traffic directed to the mobile device.
19. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein the method includes setting the timing, when the data is not time critical, with which to allow the traffic to pass through is based on when additional data needs to be sent.
20. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein the method includes selecting a network configuration with a slower data rate when the application is running in the background.
21. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein the method includes selecting a network configuration with a slower data rate when the data contained in the traffic is not time critical. "
Translation:
> do X, but with a computer