Invention can be practiced... Patent it Yourself - step-by-step two-steps: First, find a real problem Second, solve it

1. Introduce invention &
practice it
chapter 1 &2, “Patent It Yourself: Your Step-by-
Step Guide” 15th
Chen JingFung (Grace)
@csie.ntut.edu.tw
2012/03/01
Patent It Yourself 15th edition,
2011, ISBN: 1413313825, 624 grace @csie.ntut 1
pages, PDF, 16,2 MB

2. outline
• 3 types of Patents
• Intellectual Property Guides
– Including patent law, case study…
• An invention lifecycle
• Invention lesson
• Invention practice
grace @csie.ntut 2

3. 3 types of patents – utility patents
• Utility Patents:
– Consist of detailed description
– Claims that define the invention, drawings of the
invention, formal paperwork, etc.
US7,351,265 covers Piaggio’s
US8,051,444: make a bridge scooter-size hybrid technology
grace @csie.ntut 3
btw Ads & TV program

4. 3 types of patents – design patents
• Design Patents:
– Consist primarily of drawings, along with formal
paperwork …
Italian Scooter Design Patents: Claim
Construction Rules Lead to
Summary Judgment of Non-
Infringement
D505,846: bottle opener
D517,789: footwear
D547,242:3-wheel design
grace @csie.ntut 4

5. 3 types of patents – plant patents
• Plant Patents:
– Discovery in a cultivated area
– can be a asexually reproducible plants (grafts &
cutting), sexually reproducible plants (pollination),
monopolized under the Plant Variety Protection Act …
grafts & cutting
No. 15,103
No. 15,185
grace @csie.ntut 5

6. Intellectual Property Guides
• Protect a whole
process from
intangible to tangible
Ref: HTC
• ǂ: timing is crucial (1
year secret)
• *: obtain a
know-how government’s proof
grace @csie.ntut 6

7. Intellectual Property Guide – case study
• China‘s Proview (唯冠)
escalates fight over iPad • Proview are suing
name to the next level: Apple for alleged
‘worldwide rights’ fraud and unfair
competition
– to reclaim their
ownership after a
2009 sale of the name.
– the “IPAD” trademark
for $55,000
ref: kitguru.net (2012/2/27)
grace @csie.ntut
+chinamedia(2012/2/28) 7

8. Intellectual Property Guide: comparisons
Right Usage fee Advantage
Articles where the new Apply: $3,800 Expire: 20 years from
Utility
features have a useful ~ $15,000 filing date
patent
function
Design The aesthetic shape or Apply: $1,600 Lasts only 14 years, 1~3
patent layout by artificial ~ 2,600 years secure
Writings, flat artwork, Only small A very long time ( life +
Copyright photos, maps, drawings, filing fee 70 years or 95-120 years)
© programs, prints, labels,
movies …
Nature Mountain, sea … 0
About $50 ~ • Trademark can deny
$120 offensive right
Trademark ‐ become
™, ® “generic”
‐ Ex. Xerox,
Aspirin
Ref: howdoigetatrademark.com grace @csie.ntut 8
Patent fee: http://www.webpatent.com/costs.htm

9. Intellectual Property Guide – case study
trademark
• “Linsanity” both in China, and at the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office (jdsupra.com
2012/2/28)
grace @csie.ntut 9

10. Intellectual Property Guide:
Patent fees list
Design Plant
Utility patent
patent patent
Application
H L M
filing fee
Issued fee H L L
Fee1 (3 years): L
Maintenance
Fee2 (7 years): M No No
fees after issue
Fee3(11 years): H
grace @csie.ntut 10

11. Intellectual Property Guide:
patent vs. copyright ©
• Computer programs are best example for both a
patent & copyright protection
– Run “routines” (a series of numerical relationships)
• be covered under the copyright laws
– Composing a set of instructions that make a machine
operate in a certain way (To affect some Hardware or
process)
• (1) is tied to a particular machine or apparatus, or
• (2) transforms an article into a different state or thing
grace @csie.ntut 11

12. Intellectual Property Guide: Use a patent
• A Patent Can Be Used as an Offensive Weapon
or as a Prior-Art Reference
industrial applicability or
industrial application is a
patentability requirement
12
grace @csie.ntut

13. An invention lifecycle about a patent
Invention
in our “Trade secret”:
“prior-art
mind kept confidential
reference”
Patent Invention
expired (20 document
years after <- not
filing date) apply
• Patent & Trademark
Office (PTO)
• Maintain lawsuit In-force Patent • Maintain lawsuit for
for infringement infringement
patent <- pending <-
• In-force period: at • Start to pay the
issued it apply it maintenance fees
least 17 years
grace @csie.ntut 13

14. Invention lesson (1)
• 73% of all inventions, have started new
industries, are from individual inventors
– “Everything that can be invented has been
invented”
• U.S. Patent Office Director urging President to abolish
the Office in 1899
– Don’t say: no use going on with it because surely
someone has invented it already
– Try to develop your invention
be a readily sold
Ref: HTC
grace @csie.ntut 14

15. Invention lesson (2)
problem recognition & solution
• Most inventions are conceived by the
following two-step procedure:
– (1) recognizing a problem <- 90%
• Run two-step process of identifying a problem &
solving it
– Find a problem: “To be an inventor is to perceive (feel) need.”
– Solve it: Try to make it cheaper, faster, bigger or smaller, etc.
– (2) fashioning a solution <- inspiration 10%
grace @csie.ntut 15

16. Invention practice (1)
Intermittent Windshield Wipers
• Problem:
– In drizzles, the slowest speed of windshield wipers
was unnecessarily fast, and merely slowing the
wipers was unsatisfactory, since a slow sweep was
annoying.
grace @csie.ntut 16

17. Invention practice (2)
Intermittent Windshield Wipers
• Solution:
– Provide a “drizzle” setting where the windshield wipers
made normally fast sweeps but paused after each sweep.
• Individual inventor
– Dr. Kearns’s brilliantly ingenious solution earned him and
his estate over $50 million in royalties, after he sued Ford,
Chrysler, and others, as documented in the movie, Flash of
Genius (靈光乍現)
grace @csie.ntut 17

18. HW 1
• Practice 2 steps of inventions
– find a problem
– Try to solve it
grace @csie.ntut 18

19. Reference
• David Pressman, chapter 1 &2, “Patent It
Yourself: Your Step-by-Step Guide” to Filing at
the U.S. Patent Office, 2011, 15th edition, ISBN-
10: 1413313825
• Flash of Genius Official Movie Trailer HD,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSd1BS8E3
RE
• Blog: http://fungsiong.blogspot.com/
• Agile for progressing:
http://fungsiong.blogspot.com/search/label/Ag
ile
• China patent statistics
http://news.cnyes.com/Content/20120229/KFI
NDD5EYQIBI.shtml?c=sh_stock
grace @csie.ntut 19