Easy Patent Guide

Technology patents stifle innovation. You may have heard this, and the arguments surrounding it, since the first software patents were issued. Until now, however, the average individual in the United States has not noticed really noticed the reach that intellectual property law protection has in their everyday lives. After all, one does not miss innovation that has been crushed prior to the product’s shipment into the supply chain. The “wouldn’t it be nice if we had something like this” thought doesn’t normally result in a search for that item just to find that someone tried to develop it but was stopped either by being threatened with the high cost of patent infringement, threats of never ending lawsuits based on copyright or other claims, or even threats of federal legislation that will leave their product useless.

In this third article, we continue to dig into the patent application of Google regarding the method used to rank sites in search results. Interestingly, Google asserts in the application that it “might” consider user data as a factor in organizing search results.

What is this Google’s Patent?

The filling of the US Patent (#20050071741- Information Retrieval Based on Historical Data) by Google has caught many SEOs off guard in their strategies forthwith with regard to ranking of sites in SERPs. The contents of the patent reveal that search giant has incorporated sweeping changes in the way it works, and has waged a war against search engine spam and artificial link inflation.

The examination process by United States Patent Office after the patent application has been filed usually takes 12 to 18 months. This is so because it will depend on the workload and staffing of the United States Patent Office. The United States Patent Office examiners only verify that the description and claims per description by their inventors are new, unique, and not obvious to the United States Patent Office. The United States Patent Office examiners do not verify that an invention works or that it can ever be, or never has been, built. They try only to correctly verify that the invention is patentable and has not been patented in the U.S. before and their results have been overturned on more than one occasion. The United States Patent Office will not tell you if your invention has already been invented by someone else unless you apply for a patent.

US Patent and Trademark grants three types of patents which are: utility patents, design patents and plant patents. To be patentable, an invention essentially must meet the following requirements set by US Patent and Trademark which are: (1) useful, (2) novel, and (3) non-obvious. The novelty requirement of US Patent and Trademark is often consider the entry test for patentability. The probably more demanding, non-obviousness requirement is harder to objectively define.

US Patent and Trademark Office issued patents to inventors which give them the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling their invention in the United States. In exchange for this grant, the inventors must disclose their invention to the public in the form of a patent application. A patent does not grant inventors the right to make, use, sell, or import their inventions. But this does exclude others from doing so.

After making an invention that is meant to fill a need or solve a problem, an inventor need to follow several steps for getting a patent on a product or technology. There are several reasons in going through the different steps for getting a patent on an invention. It could be because you might want to make some money, if you could get the exclusive right to produce or to license your invention. It could be for prestige. Whatever it is, going through the steps for getting a patent is not easy and should be done properly.