Posts Tagged ‘Patent Litigation’
Bad Advice – Non-publication Requests for Patents
How incompetent patent attorneys hide their work product from public view. Occasionally, I run into patents where the patent attorney talks the client into a non-publication request. This is always a bad thing. Non-publication requests keep your patent secret until the patent has been examined. The patent is confidential throughout the examination process, and only…
Read MorePatent Attorneys Do Not Live with Their Mistakes
The Feedback Problem in Patent Law. Patent attorneys typically have zero feedback about the quality of their work product. This is an inherent weakness of the whole patent system. The attorneys do not have to live with their mistakes, because patent litigation and patent transactions happen long after their work product has ended. The Long…
Read MoreContingency Fee Litigation Is Only a Last Resort
If you are having to do contingency fee litigation on your patents, you did something wrong. Contingency fee litigation is a unique feature of American Law, where attorneys perform some or all of the litigation – and they get paid only if they win. Contingency fee litigation is often associated with the “ambulance chaser” attorneys…
Read MoreWhat Is Patent Infringement?
Patent infringement is when someone else uses your patented idea without permission. The strict, legal definition is when someone infringes or performs every limitation of at least one patent claim. This is found in 35 USC 271. Many inventors and entrepreneurs believe that having a patent means they are “protected.” Having a patent just means…
Read MoreHow Patent Pools Work
Patent pools and standards essential patents are the Holy Grail of intellectual property. Patent pools are sophisticated ways that companies can bring technology together, cross license them, and license that package of intellectual property to the market. For many major technologies, such as Bluetooth, MPEG, 3G, 4G, and even electric vehicle charging, companies have banded…
Read MoreHow Patent Licensing Works
On a small scale, a patent owner might worry about creating patents that can be asserted against competitors. The plan is to stop a competitor from copying. These thoughts are often where a startup stops the analysis. This concept is the essence of a good patent. But what happens when you get the patent? How…
Read MoreIP Indemnification for Small Companies
I am “too small” to get sued for patent infringement[1]. Many small companies believe, falsely, that they are too small to be sued. Very small companies can be targets for patent trolls, but what happens when their customers are sued? One of my friends had a small startup that had an automated bot for a…
Read MoreWhat Are The Costs To Enforce or Defend a Patent?
Two stages of litigation: claim construction and the trail. Post Grant Review (or Inter-Partes Review) Patent litigation can be very expensive, and the costs of litigation go up considerably with the amount of money at risk. Not to mention, just getting a patent can be very expensive. The risk of patent litigation can be handled…
Read MoreWhy Startup Patents Are Doomed From The Start
Patents for small companies are fundamentally different from patents for large companies. The decisions made – and skills needed – to develop the two are very different. Old tractor in the Alpine meadows There are several problems facing a startup company when getting patents. The biggest problem: the skillset needed for a startup’s patents is…
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