WikiPatents Blog

A report that was published at the beginning of this month illustrates that the European Patent Organization (EPO) is issuing less patents, despite the rise in patent applications. The EPO received 7600 more patent applications this year compared to last year, but issued 12.9% less patents this year than last year. Why such a decrease in issued patents? Alison Brimelow, EPO President says it’s because the focus is on patent quality, not quantity. She states,

“The purpose of patents is to support the generation of economic benefits for society. However, large patent numbers are not necessarily indicative of growing R&D activity. What we therefore need is not more patents, but more good patents.”

“The EPO aims to make sure that the patents it grants are relevant. The lower number of patents published in 2007 reflects this priority and is a step in the right direction. Putting the emphasis on quality over quantity in the granting of European patents is a key strategy for safeguarding the proper functioning of the European patent system. At the same time, it allows the EPO to continue to set the global benchmark in patenting.”

For more information on this statistical report, please visit http://www.epo.org/topics/news/2008/20080401.html.

There are different kinds of protection to support different types of intellectual property. Intellectual property protection falls, in large part, under Patents, Copyrights or Trademarks.

• Patents, as we discussed earlier, grant the inventor property rights to an invention that prevent anyone else from making, using, selling or importing that invention. Patents include a detailed description of how an invention works and are generally effective for 20 years from the date the patent was filed. Patents are considered “property” and can be bought, sold, mortgaged, or licensed by the patentee.

• Copyrights protect “original works” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic and intellectual works, published or unpublished, fixed in a tangible medium of expression. The owner of the copyrighted work can reproduce the work in any form. Copyrights protect the form of expression, but not the subject matter expressed. So if you copyrighted your literary work on a new technology, other people cannot use that particular literary work, but they can write their own “original article” about that technology and/or make that technology.

• Trademarks or Servicemarks are used to protect a “word, symbol or device that is used in trade with goods to indicated the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others”. Servicemarks distinguish a source of service, but are essentially the same as trademarks. Trademarks and Servicemarks prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark when selling goods or services, but they can sell the same good or service under a different mark.

Check out this stylish patent featuring the “Pants Separable at Crotch for Style Mixing” http://www.wikipatents.com/6161223.html. The abstract of this patent describes the invention as “A pair of pants that is easily separable at the crotch into right and left leg portions. Each leg portion is selected from a set of various styles to flexibly create a custom mixed or matched style for a given wearing of the pants. A closure system is provided for quick and convenient separation and re-combination of the leg portions while also providing secure use of the pants.” You can find this patent under “Most Interesting Patents” link http://www.wikipatents.com/adjectives.php?type=interesting on WikiPatents.com.

You never know, it could be the next big thing!

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Lauren

You can make the WikiPatents Blog a part of your blogsite by adding the WikiPatents widget. A widgets is a mini-application you can put into your blog to provide your readers with information and functionality. The WikiPatents widget is posted on the right-hand sidebar of the WikiPatents Blog. It provides a quick view of our blog. To get the WikiPatents widget and provide your readers with more information on the patent world, just click on the “Get Widget” icon below the widget. Different blog hosts will appear. Select your blog host (blogger, myspace, facebook, etc…) and follow the prompts to add the WikiPatents Blog and join the widgetsphere.

The well known guitar company Gibson Guitar Corp. has accused the game publisher Activision Inc. of patent infringement for the popular game “Guitar Hero”. Gibson has accused Activision for violating its patent entitled, “System and Method for Generating and Controlling a Simulated Musical Concert Experience” (http://www.wikipatents.com/5990405.html) and is requiring Activision to obtain a license under Gibson’s patent or stop selling the game.

In response, Activision is filing a lawsuit against Gibson to prevent them from collecting damages, claiming that by waiting three years to raise a complaint, Gibson had allowed an implied license for use of its technology. “Guitar Hero” has generated over $1 billion since its original release and the new “Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock” is a big part of Activision’s recent 90% increase in profit.

Take a look at the patent and tell us if you think Activision is violating Gibson’s patent.

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Lauren

The “Anticipate This” blogsite recently posted a review of the WikiPatents website (http://anticipatethis.wordpress.com/2008/02/26/wiki-community-patent-review-update/). The review and the comments (and picture) are a recommended read.

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Lauren

Did you know that you can view patents that have been listed as available for lease or sale on WikiPatents.com? On the top of the home page of www.wikipatents.com is a link entitled “WikiPatents Marketplace” http://www.wikipatents.com/marketplace.php, which shows you all the different patents that are listed as available for lease or sale:

The “Featured Patents” listed for lease or sale can be found on the home page and at the top of the “WikiPatents Marketplace” link. Other patents for lease or sale can be found below on the “WikiPatents Marketplace” link. You can click on any patent that might interest you to find out more information on that patent.

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Lauren

There are three different kinds of patents:

• Utility patents are granted to “anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement…” Basically utility patents are for any new invention or new function. Some examples are:
  • Genetically engineered bacteria for a specific purpose (i.e. Cleaning up oil spills etc…)
  • New medications
  • New computer hardware
• Design patents are granted to “anyone who invents a new original and ornamental design for an article of manufacture”.For example, inventions that improve upon style, not function of a product that may or may not already exist would require a design patent.Examples of possible inventions are:
  • The look of an athletic shoe
  • A bicycle helmet
  • The shape of a Coca Cola bottle

• Plant patents are granted to “anyone who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of plant”.Relatively few plant patent applications are filed in the US every year.Some examples of plant patents are:
  • Hybrid tea roses
  • Better Boy tomatoes
  • Organdy Chrysanthemums

For more information, check out http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/doc/general/index.html#ptsc.

Any questions? Just write me comments!

Having trouble keeping your ice cream evenly distributed around the cone as you eat it? The solution: the “Motorized Ice Cream Cone” patent, which can be found on WikiPatents “Most Amusing Patents” list http://www.wikipatents.com/adjectives.php?type=amusing. The “Motorized Ice Cream Cone” patent http://www.wikipatents.com/5971829.html features, “A novelty amusement eating receptacle for supporting, rotating and sculpting a hand-held housing, a cup rotatably supported by the hand-held housing and adapted to receive and contain a portion of ice cream or food product of similar consistency, and a portion of ice cream or similarly malleable food while it is being consumed comprising: a drive mechanism in the hand-held housing for imparting rotation upon the cup and rotationally feeding its contents against a person’s outstretched tongue.” Why not?

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Lauren

One blog site to add to our list below (see “Blog it!”) is the “Anticipate This, Patent and Trademark Law Blog” http://anticipatethis.wordpress.com/2006/09/04/wiki-community-patent-review/, where the author discusses the features and benefits of WikiPatents.com. Another cool link to this blog shows some useful resources when searching for any info on patents http://anticipatethis.wordpress.com/resources/. Check it out!

–Lauren