Archive for October, 2009
Nokia’s Suit of Apple in the Federal District Court of Delaware: A chance to discuss Patent Infringement.
On October 22, 2009, the Finish cell phone giant, Nokia, filed suit against Apple in the Federal District Court of Delaware. Nokia alleges that Apple infringed against ten of their patents which covered various wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption technologies. According to Nokia, every cell phone produced by Apple since 2007 has violated these patents. I will speculate why Nokia has brought such a suit later in this blog, but, first, I will explain patent infringement. Read the rest of this entry »
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Moving from Best IDEA Ever to Best PRODUCT Ever
Brainstorm Patents focuses on working with individual inventors. While a lot of inventors are leaps and bounds ahead in technical areas, they may not have a solid understanding of the patent system and what it can (and can’t) do to help them in their ever growing quest for marketability and product success.
The post below is a continuation on the first question in a series that aims to shed some light on the details of patent work. I will do my best to answer everything in layman’s terms. If you need more clarification, contact us, and we’ll be glad to help!
Question #1: I just came up with a great idea. What should I do now?
In the previous post, the beginning stages of idea conceptualization were touched upon. The “Eureka!” moment fills you with excitement, anticipation and visions of grandeur and success. While the “Eureka!” moment is the most important, the “Now What?!” moment is a close second. An idea without any action will always be an idea. Ideas are very tough to cash in for fame and fortune. In order to be successful, your idea must become something – a product, a business, a process, a system. We at Brainstorm Patents aim to help you take your idea and turn it into something of value. Let’s pick up from where we left off last post….
BIG Microbusiness Hunt
The Big Idea Group has announced a new search for commercial products with a submission deadline of March 31, 2010.
Big Idea Group is searching for inventions that could become the basis of a profitable microbusiness. BIG plans to form a venture to bring the best invention (or inventions) to market. The winning inventor(s) will receive not only a royalty on products sold, but also an equity stake in the new business that we form to launch the invention. Multiple inventions might be selected.
Tags: First to file? First to invent? Does it matter?
WHAT TYPE OF PATENT SYSTEM IS BEST FOR AMERICA?
There is much debate today about whether the United States should retain its current first-to-invent patent policy or should it conform to the rest of the world and adopt a first-to-file patent policy. The Patent Reform Act of 2007 was passed by the House of Representatives in September of 2008 and it is still waiting for a vote in the Senate. If the Senate approves the act, it will change America’s patent system to a first-to-file system. I believe that such a change would be devastating to the American economy, as well as our form of capitalism. I will explain the two systems and articulate why I believe that the current system (first-to-invent) is the better option.
- The policy behind the United States Patent System
The modern American patent is a government issued grant, which confers upon the patent owner, from the time the patent issues, the right to exclude others from “making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States” for a period of 20 years from the filing date of the patent application. In return for obtaining this grant, the inventor must disclose the invention in detail to the public so that a person of ordinary skill in the art to which the invention pertains can make use of the invention. This “contract” between the government and inventors ensures that inventions will be made public as quickly as possible so that others can build upon the technology. A patent is essentially an incentive for an inventor to spend large sums of time and money to create an invention that will be disclosed to the public and will benefit the public.