discuss patent

[ankur rathi]

Hi,

I have tons of doubt regarding patent.

1. How to file a patent?
2. How to make sure that this idea is not yet patented?
3. The whole process and time consumed in each phase?
4. What�s the cost involved in it?

And finally anyone has got any patent on JR, please share your experience?

Thanks.

[David O'Meara]

Do you ever feel you're expecting too much from a Java site?

[Jay Emm]

Patents lodgement and protection in Australia for 10 years will be around 10,000 AUD (~8,500 USD) including lawyer fees and registration. It would cost around 8,000 dollars to maintain for 20 years. It would be about double that for an international patent. This is rough information relating to the Australian patent process found at:

http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/patents/fees_index.shtml

Patents are USELESS if you don't have enough money to legally defend your patent in any country that may infringe on your patent. Both sides will have to show expert testimony to prove their case.

Short story: It costs a lot.

If you have 100,000s of USD and you can cover the cost with license fees for your idea, then do it. But for the small-time Java developer, it is overkill.

Cheers,

Jarrod

[Joanne Neal]

The answer to all those questions will be different depending on what country you want to get a patent in.
Have you tried looking at the websites for the patent office of the country you are interested in ?
UK Patent Office
European patent office
US Patent Office
Indian Patent Office

I'm sure Google will find the address of any others you may be interested in.

[Anupam Sinha]

You can still stop someone else from patenting your stuff if you decide not to patent it. It is I guess called publishing your work.

[Jay Emm]

That is correct. If you can show evidence of 'prior art' then you can block someone patenting your idea after you have actively used it.

Jarrod

[Shaan Shar]

Originally posted by David O'Meara:
Do you ever feel you're expecting too much from a Java site?

David got stuck on this question....That's why the response was so funny....

[Arvind Mahendra]

What are you expecting to patent?

[Pat Farrell]

Originally posted by ankur rathi:


1. How to file a patent?

as others have said, fill out the paperwork needed for the given country, pay the fees.

2. How to make sure that this idea is not yet patented?

You can do a "patent search" of "prior art" to see if someone else has beat you to it. You can do it yourself, or pay someone professional. Just a search can cost thousands of dollars.

3. The whole process and time consumed in each phase?

How long does it take you to write the application? or to get it awarded?
In the US, it takes about two years, but varies by 'art' category, and how complex the idea is, and how many claims you have.

4. What�s the cost involved in it?

Probably $10K to have legal help. I think the actual filing fees are low.

My dad was a US Patent Examiner. He said that under one percent of patents earn enough money to pay for the filing fees.

Once you are awarded a patent, you must defend it, or you lose your rights to it.

I've had one patent awarded, and have applied for others.
It would not be worth my money to do it. It took me about a month, full time, working with the patent attorney, to get the application written.
During that time, I was not writing code to make the system better.

[marc weber]

I would think the first step is to find an online forum that has nothing to do with patents (or any other meaningful topics), and see what you can find out there.

[Jay Emm]

Originally posted by marc weber:
I would think the first step is to find an online forum that has nothing to do with patents (or any other meaningful topics), and see what you can find out there.

That's a bit cynical and unfair, especially given the rather informative response he has received. And this discussion isn't entirely irrelevant in an industry based on innovation and a rather large generation of commercializable intellectual property.

It's more often than not Java programmers work hard hours for a larger company which will take their hard work and sell it with a rather generous profit margin. Entrepreneurialism should be inspired, particular in the Java community which is currently facing a great deal of competition for ubiquity. If the next killer app is in Java, the community will be happy indeed.

Jarrod

[Devesh H Rao]

Originally posted by Jarrod Moldrich:


That's a bit cynical and unfair, especially given the rather informative response he has received. .............
Jarrod

Jarrod,
Marc and David are actually doing a favour to ankur, you seem to be new out here so you may not know the rules for posting on meaningless drivel.

Moderators are quick to thrash any thread which has a sembelance of meaning and asking for patents in MD is asking for trouble. Marc and David being old timers know how much important the information could be to ankur and hence pre-empting the closure of the thread by posting their comments which makes the thread valid in MD context

[Jay Emm]

Originally posted by Devesh H Rao:

Marc and David being old timers know how much important the information could be to ankur and hence pre-empting the closure of the thread by posting their comments which makes the thread valid in MD context

That's a pretty tenuous argument