What Students should know about Patents
A patent is a legal document that secures the owner the
right to exclude others from making, using or selling the claimed invention for
a period of time. It may also be considered a contract between the inventor and
the government in which the inventor agrees to disclose the invention in
exchange for certain rights (quid pro quo).
To be patentable the invention must fall within one
of the following statutory classes:
To receive a patent the invention must meet the following three criteria:
·
Usefulness: Having some practical utility; fit
for some desirable, practical or commercial purpose.
·
Novelty: The concept that the claims must be
totally new. The invention must never have been made public in any way,
anywhere, before the date on which the application for a patent is filed. In
the
Main
Parts to a Patent
Basic Patent: Since
patents for a particular invention may appear at different times in a number of
countries, abstracting and indexing services generally have adopted the
practice of abstracting only the first patent issued, called the basic patent.
Patent
Family: consists of all the equivalent patent applications
corresponding to a single invention, covering different geographical regions.
Prior Art: In a broad sense, technology that is relevant to an
invention and was publicly available (e.g. described in a publication or
offered for sale) at the time an invention was made. In a narrow sense, any such
technology which would invalidate a patent or limit its scope. The
process of prosecuting a patent or interpreting its claims largely consists of
identifying relevant prior art and distinguishing the claimed invention from
that prior art.
Kind Codes: The letter, often with a further number, indicating
the level of publication of a patent. Kind Codes are different for each
country. Examples: US Kind Code A:
Granted US Patent (issued prior to
IPC - International Patent Classification: IPC is an
internationally recognized classification system, which is controlled by the
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and assigned to patent
documents by Patent Offices. There are 8 sections (A - H) and these sections
are further subdivided into classes. Each Class consists of the Section letter,
followed by two digits.
·
International Patent Classification codes in 5 languages http://www.dagostini.it/patclass/patclass
· http://www.uspto.gov/go/classification/
· http://www.micropat.com/classdef/MANUAL/main.html
Maintenance
Fees: In the
Publication
of Patents
Information
on Major Patent Issuing Agencies
US Patent Office is an agency of the U.S. Department
of Commerce. The role of the USPTO is to grant patents for the protection of
inventions and to register trademarks. Patent applications publish 18 month
from filing date. Patents will have the code US.
European Patent
Convention is
a treaty primarily covering only Western European countries, which permits the
applicant to file a single application with the EPO (European Patent Office) in
Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) - this treaty facilitates filing of international applications of about 40 member countries. It permits the applicant to file a single international application, which will be equivalent to a national filing in each of the countries designated on the application. The PCT does not grant patents!
The PCT is administrated by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). WIPO publishes the unexamined application after 18 months, initiates the search report for prior art and then forwards the application and search report to the national offices of the designated countries. Patents will have the code WO.
Japanese Patent Office issues six types of patent documents. Most important are
For each type of these documents the Japanese numbering system uses an annual series and begins each year with document number 1. As a result, in the same year an identical number can be assigned to different inventions that are at different levels of publications. The only exception to this rule is Granted Patent Numbers, which use a continued series at number 2,500,001. Patents will have the code JP.
Resources
and Books
Glossary of Patent Term
·
http://www.webpatent.com/content/glossary.htm
·
http://www.delphion.com/help/glossary
General Patent
Information
·
Nolo Press http://www.nolo.com/ Patents, Copyrights
and Trademarks. Good site to start if you want to know how to file a patent.
Also accessible is an Encyclopedia
for Patent Law and has links to other On-line patent resources as well as books
and software pertaining to Patents.
Books
An extensive list of books
on patents is available from the PIUG Page http://www.piug.org/.
A short list of patent books for Scientists and Engineers is compiled
below:
·
Patent Strategies for Business, 3rd
Edition, Stephen C. Glazier, LBI Law & Business Institute, Waldorf,
Maryland, November, 1997.
No Cost Patent Searching Sites
· USPTO (US Patent and Trademark Office) Patent Databases http://patents.uspto.gov/index.html
Good
site to search for most resent patents however it's only a bibliographic
database and search interface is a bit cumbersome. The searchable database
looks for front-page information from
·
European
Patent Information http://www.european-patent-office.org/espacenet/info/access.htm
Searches are based on the bibliographic data in patent documents, using an
easy-to-operate search mask, which is not, however, suitable for more complex
searches. You can download the full text images as PDF files - page by page
only - but they are free!
·
DEPATISnet Information http://www.depatisnet.de/
German
site to search US-1973+, EP-1978+, EP-1978+, WO-1978+, WO-1978+, DE-1973+, DD-
1973+, AT-1973+, CH-1973+, FR-1973+, GB-1973+, JP-1973+, Patents and Applications
are all in one site and then link to the full text patent. Website is available
in English and German. You can download the full text images as PDF files -
page by page only - but they are free!
·
SurfIP
Good site to search US-1790+, WO-97+, EP-97+,
·
Delphion Intellectual Property Network
(formerly the IBM Patent Server)
Search US Front Page Patents only. All other services are on a subscription
basis only.
The bolded
database name refers to the STN database name and the italic file number refers
to Dialog database name. For more
information on the database content refer to the Database Summary Sheets for
the STN databases and the Bluesheets for the Dialog Databases.
Other
fee-based Patent Searching Tools
·
Questel Orbit http://www.questel.orbit.com/
· Lexis-Nexis http://web.lexis.com/xchange/practiceareas/patent/default.asp
Other providers listed at http://www.epo.co.at/online/index.htm#patpro
Purchase
Patents
Other providers listed at http://www.piug.org/vendor.html#bmDocDel
Other
Intellectual Property
Copyrights - A copyright protects the
writings of an author against copying. A copyright is a form of intellectual
property right granted by the federal government for "original works of
authorship." Includes software, musical scores, books,
letters, and web pages. Gives author exclusive right
to reproduce, sell, display distribute, or perform their work. It lasts
the author's lifetime plus 70 years. For more information please see. http://www.copyright.com/
Trademarks - A trademark is a brand
name that appears on packaging (word, name, symbol, or device that identifies a
source of goods). Lasts 20 years and is renewable as long as it is in use.
Trade
Secret - A
trade secret can be any information not known generally in the trade that is
used in business to provide an advantage over competitors. Trade secrets never
expire as do patents and copyrights, and you don't apply for them. Trade secret
rights can be obtained only by developing the information representing the
trade secret and maintaining the secrecy of the information. The following
types of information have previously been found to qualify as proper trade
secret subject matter: 1. customer lists; 2. chemical processes and formulas;
3. algorithms and processes that are implemented in computer programs and the
programs themselves; 4. designs, drawings, architectural plans and blueprints;
5. data compilations, business plans and methods of doing business; 6.
manufacturing or repair processes and techniques.
Silvia E. Lee, MLIS
Symyx Technologies
Inc.
Voice: 408 330 3974
Fax: 408 492 9103
Email: slee@symyx.com
Web: www.symyx.com