Easy Patent Guide

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.

The Patent and Trademark Office examiner, after the patent application has been filed with the Patent and Trademark Office, carefully reviews the application in order to determine the invention’s patentability. There is only one Patent and Trademark Office in the U.S. It is located in Arlington, Virginia, close to Washington, DC.

Patent valuation refers to determining the value of patents. Some patents are very valuable, but a number are not. Because patents often are quite complex, patent valuation is usually a highly detailed and expensive process that requires the input of lawyers and advisers with specific technical knowledge and experience. The makeup of patent valuation teams will vary by engagement, but it is axiomatic that before an appraiser can value something, he or she has to understand what it is. Here are some suggestions to help those involve in patent valuation work to do just that: