Patent

The Patent Class

This American Life Patents make safe to share your ideas , +70% patent lawsuits and +650% license requests “Patent Troll” – Hoarding IP, make no products, look to sue Lawsuits slow innovation; raise costs Re$ource based activity; those who can pay can play Software patents used to be copyrightable only Patents prevent innovation / Patents ARE NOT inventions “shell companies”

Leadbeater

Leadbeater Cont'd Bottom up creativity vs. Top down – Producers consume consumers' ideas Innovations are collaborative, develop slowly Payoff for innovation is greatest when uncertainty is greatest – Consumers help dictate the uses of an invention (invent the USE); uses of invention worked out through use – New ideas are disruptive and don't happen within large organizations...corporations follow. Emerging markets are creative – Innovation comes from “pro-ams”

Motion Pictures Patent Company Edison controlled most motion picture patents, but those expired in 1910s Vertically integrated, from film stock, motion picture cameras, projectors, etc. Distributors, exhibitors would “infringe” on the patents if they didn't use/license from the Trust Attempt to standardize the industry; both delivery and content 1915, Supreme Court “busted” the trust; Cartel, monopoly (violated anti-trust)

Edison Phonograph 5 main parts, based on prior art: – 1) the trumpet, sketched by da Vinci and used in communication systems for the Duke of Milan – 2) the diaphragm, articulated by Hippocrates of Greece and used in drums – 3) the stylus, used in pictographs by Egyptians and Assyrians – 4) moving cylinders, used in lathes – 5) the feed screw, an innovation of Archimedes – 6) the wheel.

Patent Basics 35 U.S.C. (Constitution, and Statutory) Receive limited monopoly of years, in exchange for making idea “public domain” While idea is public domain, to use it a LICENSE must be obtained from patent holder By applying the idea is made public (except design patents)....“enabling” Right to PREVENT others from using idea within a country (territoriality!!!) “World wide patent”=went through patent process in other countries

Patent Basics Cont'd Exclusionary right granted to natural people (inventors), assigned or licensed to corporations NO corporate authorship!!! Employees usually must assign patent to corporations when made under employment Limited property right, shared w/ public 14- year (design patents) and 20-year durations – Extendable for patents that must go through FDA Patent scope determined by claims in “file wrapper”

Filing $$$$$ and knowledge for application Patent examiner (lawyer) at USTPO 20 rejections for every allowance Unless inventor has capital/knowledge, must partner w/ corporation or sell Patent award to individual(s), then assigned or licensed to companies with the means “Patent Pending”= a warning that patent application filed; protect against injunction, etc.

First to File v. First to Invent Steps of Invention in US – 1) conception – 2) reduction to practice (filing patent and uses) America Invents Act of 2011 – US a first to invent to a first to file system – Goes into effect March 16, 2013 US only FTI, rest of the world is first to file (FTF)

What Does Patent Protect Plant patents: asexually reproduced plants Design patents: ornamental design; not function Utility patents: “patents for invention”; 90% of patents are these Improvement patent: if technology underlying the improvement is still patented, inventor cannot exercise the improvement (cross license or “license pool”)

But not... Cannot patent laws of nature Cannot patent mathematical theory, just how it's applied in inventions Cannot patent abstract ideas BUT, medical procedures, living organisms and DNA are PATENTABLE