Consider A Spherical Patent: IP and Patenting in High-Tech Business
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Features
- Focuses on the most important, often ignored aspects of the patent process
- Discusses invention and inventor issues as well as nondisclosure agreements
- Highlights practical tips, real-world success stories, and caveats
- Provides a set of best practices and operating principles
Summary
This book tackles the false assumptions and commonly misunderstood aspects of the patent process. It discusses the most important and frequently ignored aspects of intellectual property (lP), equipping readers in any aspect of high-tech business to secure patents with real value. The book presents an invaluable set of best practices and central operating principles, which set forth the key steps required for developing and implementing a successful patent strategy. Examples include the evolution of 3D movies and the story of Jim Frazier, a cinematographer who lost millions due to a patent application mistake.
Table of Contents
Introduction: How Hard Can It Be?
The art of oversimplification
Perceptions about patents and their business value
Virtual IP and the role of money
The IP big bang and the complexity of the patenting universe
The pervasive nature of IP in high-tech business
The evolving nature of patents in high-tech business
Zooming in and out
The Quantum Nature of Patents
The old-school classical view of patenting
A quantum view of patenting
Bureaucratic quantum tunneling
Patent quality: aviation or appliances?
How and when patent quality is measured
The yin and yang of validity and infringement
Perspectives on provisional patent applications
Lost in IP Space
The fractal nature of innovation
Creating new IP space: the invention of graphene
IP space junk
IP-space black holes
Patenting and technology waves
Patenting and technology trends
Example technology and patent evolution: 3D movies
Comments on prior art searching
Patenting Best Practices
Existential reasons for a sound patenting process
Patenting outside of Shangri-La: confronting operational realities
The BL T imbalance
The Canonical Patenting Process
Owning and driving the upfront process
Achieving BL T harmony
Expanding the inventor base
The need for parallel processing
Understanding invention disclosures
A deeper look into the invention review process
The patent application preparation and review process
Patenting in academia
Patenting beyond the US
Obviousness
The basic guidelines
The obviousness/non-obvious boundary
Examples of "obvious" inventions
Legal quantum tunneling
Invention quenching
Obviousness rejections
The obviousness tug of war
Inventions and Inventors
The problem of IP illiteracy in high-tech business
Inventor education
IP and the new high-tech professionalism
Helping high-tech workers achieve IP Zanshin
Ideas versus inventions
Inventorship politics
The coefficient of shame
What is patentable, and should I care?
When is an invention patentable?
Invention disclosures revisited
Inventors searching the prior art
An updated view of the invention notebook
Inventor review of patent applications
Assisting legal counsel
Mentoring
Things every inventor must know
Patent Strategies: Establishing Central Operating Principles
COPs and patenting strategy
The bottleneck COP
The "seat at the table" COP
The licensing COP
The cross-licensing COP
The product-based defensive COP
The "new products from old technology" COP
The execution problem
Managing the Law Firm Relationship
The lawyer-client power dynamic
Clients vs. customers
Who will fill the power vacuum?
Understanding what lawyers are good at
Overlawyering vs. the principle of least time
Risk averse lawyers vs. risk seeking entrepreneurs
Rejecting old-school billing
The importance of proper technical expertise
A Glimpse into the World of Patent Litigation
How patent ligation can arise
How to prepare for the possibility of patent litigation
The importance of conducting the managed IP process in a manner that does not come back to haunt the company if patent litigation arises
Patent litigation process and the various steps involved
Discussion of patent litigation costs associated with the patent litigation process
Discussion of possible outcomes of the lawsuit
Crossfire: the infringement and invalidity battle between the parties
The challenge of explaining high-tech inventions to a lay jury
