More patent idiocy

[keith]

Blatant violations of clear patents for desirable products can
sometimes be fought on a contingent fee basis,

Show me an example. Even the Gould patent fight was paid for by those who
chose to license it early.

but the goal generally is
to get someone else to fight it for you. Colossal companies will spend
high sums to beat a patent on occasion but the smaller ones are usually
happy to buy you out, because beating you means everyone can then use
the idea.

....unless they hold a similar and/or more encompassing patent they're
trying to defend.

Meaning your huge legal bill and frequent bad publicity gives
you no comparative advantage.

Ok. If...

No one is infringing the Ellison throttle body injector, a patented
variation on the old POSA carburetor bringing stupid prices for two
decades now.

Any patent protection have expired in "two decades". That's sort of the
idea.

 

[Bret Ludwig]

Any patent protection have expired in "two decades". That's sort of the
idea.

A patent in the United States was, until recently, good for 17 years.
One renewal was possible, which takes you to 34.

The new term is 20 years. Apparently no renewal is possible.

Other nations have different patent requirements and lengths. In the
case of cameras, we no longer manufacture them in the US. The potential
manufacturers of M Leica system cameras, besides Leica, were all in
Japan. They have to comply with the patent laws in Japan in any case,
and then in the countries to which they export the product. Since
camera manufacture is economical only if they can sell in all, or at
least most, major markets, it was only in the mid-1990s the M Leica
mount was no longer covered, at least in enough markets to make it
worthwhile.

 

[Mac]

??? "directing a beam of invisible light" ???
How the heck does one direct something invisible,
and
How the heck does a hand-held laser apparatus produce invisible light?

Basically, the guy patented the use of a small battery-powered laser as a
cat exercising device. If you have never seen this, you are missing
something quite funny.

The cat will chase the laser dot all over the room. If you let the cat
"catch" the laser dot, it will cover it with one paw, then, when it sees
the dot is now on top of its paw, it will cover that paw with the other
paw. Then it pulls out the lower paw and puts IT on top. It really is
amusing.

Probably the biggest tipoff that the patent application was filed as a
joke is the mention of ferrets.

Somewhere there is also a patent for a technique of swinging sideways on a
child's swing. I'm too lazy to look up the number.

--Mac

 

[Robert Baer]

Patents enabled Steve Wittman and Percival Spencer, to name two of
hundreds, to live most of their lives as eccentric inventors with money
instead of eccentric factory workers or ranch hands who invented as
time and money permitted (or usually didn't).

Patents are why McIntosh Laboratories still sells a fair number of its
amplifiers to transformer wind houses for bench test gear. Patents are
why no one but Leitz made M-mount lenses for Leicas (or bodies for
M-mount lenses) for almost forty years.

A good patent for a good product coupled with merchandising and
marketing skills is still a _good thing_ to have.

Don is high-centered on the fact that many patents can be broken by
Prior Art with enough work. Many can, but it rarely happens, for good
reasons. Don's Magic Sinewaves, if they ever do really work-I'm not
saying they do or don't-will be a test case.

A patent is good for 14 years, *not* "almost 40 years".
Furthermore, one has to be rich to litigate a patent and win; makes
no difference which side is the "owner".

 

[Robert Baer]

Blatant violations of clear patents for desirable products can
sometimes be fought on a contingent fee basis, but the goal generally
is to get someone else to fight it for you. Colossal companies will
spend high sums to beat a patent on occasion but the smaller ones are
usually happy to buy you out, because beating you means everyone can
then use the idea. Meaning your huge legal bill and frequent bad
publicity gives you no comparative advantage.

No one is infringing the Ellison throttle body injector, a patented
variation on the old POSA carburetor bringing stupid prices for two
decades now.

Not being mechanically inclined, i would appreciate illumination
concerning the Ellison and the POSA (whatever that is).

 

[Robert Baer]

Why? At that time patent protection only lasted 17 from issue (now
20 years from file). Forty years??! All of these patents have long since
run out.




So is a little knowledge.




Patents can be broken with lotsa money, sure. I believe his larger point
is that they're worthless for those without an equal pile of bucks to
defend the patent. All a patent gives you is a right to sue.

"All a patent gives you is a right to sue." - not quite.
*ANYBODY* has a right to sue, and for anything they damn well please.
A patent, like a (registered) copyright, is de-facto proof of
ownership, period.

 

[Winfield Hill]

Robert Baer wrote...

"All a patent gives you is a right to sue." - not quite.
*ANYBODY* has a right to sue, and for anything they damn well
please. A patent, like a (registered) copyright, is de-facto
proof of ownership, period.

Which isn't worth much in a court case. You have to prove
exactly what you own, re-defining your patent's words and
phrases to show relevance to the supposed violator's product.
He gets to argue for a different interpretation. If this part
goes OK, he'll attack the patent validity, claiming you didn't
properly show the examiner all the prior art. A whole new
round of word and phrase definitions gets to be argued, with
discovery, depositions, expert witnesses, court materials and
stacks of lawyers charging $300 an hour. The typical cost for
prosecuting a "shoo-in" case, $5M. For a serious case, > $20M.

 

[Robert Baer]

Robert Baer wrote...



Which isn't worth much in a court case. You have to prove
exactly what you own, re-defining your patent's words and
phrases to show relevance to the supposed violator's product.
He gets to argue for a different interpretation. If this part
goes OK, he'll attack the patent validity, claiming you didn't
properly show the examiner all the prior art. A whole new
round of word and phrase definitions gets to be argued, with
discovery, depositions, expert witnesses, court materials and
stacks of lawyers charging $300 an hour. The typical cost for
prosecuting a "shoo-in" case, $5M. For a serious case, > $20M.

Pocket lint!

 

[[email protected]]

Probably the biggest tipoff that the patent application was filed as a
joke is the mention of ferrets.

Why? Ferrets are about 1E6 times more playful than cats for a given
stimulus level.