Patent Law Notes

The U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 grants Congress the power to promote the progress of science and useful arts.
This is achieved by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.

A patent is not the right to make and use your invention.
It is the right to prevent others from making, using, or importing the invention claimed in the patent for 20 years.
If a process is covered by a patent, then any product using that patented process infringes on that patent.
The allegedly infringing product is compared with the claims in the original patent to determine whether the product uses the patented process.
An improvement on an existing product can be patented.
The patent on the original product stays with the original patent holder, while the new patent can cover the improvement.
The party who patents the improvement does not obtain rights to the original patent, and the holder of the original patent likewise has no rights to the patented improvement.

Utility patents are patents on useful items, protecting the useful or functional aspects of an invention.
Design patents relate to the ornamental design of an object.
Plant patents cover new types of flowering plants.

To be patentable, an invention must satisfy three basic elements:

To obtain a patent for an invention, the invention must actually be new.
Everything that came before is referred to as “prior art.”
The invention cannot be expressly or implicitly disclosed in any “prior art” references.
If there is already a patent for the invention, a patent application for the invention, a description of the invention in a printed publication, or a product in use that already uses the process used by the invention, the invention does not meet the novelty requirement.

Usefulness is also referred to as the “utility requirement.”
Inventions are almost always solutions to problems.
The utility requirement requires us to answer questions such as “Does the invention do anything?” and “Does the invention work?”

Non-obviousness is a different problem from novelty.
Even if an invention is new, it might still be “obvious.”
Definition of non-obviousness: whether combining two older inventions would be obvious to “one skilled in the art.”
Three-part test:
- First, determine the scope and content of the prior art.
- Second, examine the differences between the prior art and the patent at issue.
- Third, analyze the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.

Discussion of design similarities and potential infringement between Samsung Galaxy and Apple iPhone products.
Includes figures and diagrams illustrating design elements of both devices.

Patent disputes in the Internet of Things (IoT) space among various companies.
Mentions companies involved in IoT patent disputes, including Cisco, Samsung, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and others

Discusses the leading companies in terms of patent filings for 5G technology.
Includes a bar graph comparing the number of patents granted and not yet granted for companies like Huawei, Samsung, ZTE, LG, Nokia, Ericsson, Qualcomm, and Intel.

Analysis of patent filings related to autonomous driving.
Companies mentioned include Bosch, Audi, Continental, Ford, GM, BMW, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Google.

Lists the companies with the most artificial intelligence-related patents.
Includes companies like Microsoft, IBM, Samsung, Qualcomm, Google, Philips, Siemens, Sony, Intel, and Canon.
Includes a chart showing the number of AI-related patent applications per year from 2008 to 2018.

Many technologies, such as smartphones and wireless networks
Examples: WiFi, 4G, LTE, WLAN
Each standard may implicate 1,000's of patents
Only some are Standard-Essential Patents (SEPs)
- Must be used to practice standards
Once adopted, SEP owner could have outsized advantage
- SEP in standard, so more valuable than pre-incorporation
- SEP = major obstacle, if standard in widespread use

The standard setting organizations (SSOs) selects a specific technology for developing a standard. This information is provided by the SSO to the leading companies in the domain which can contribute to the development of the standard.
During the development phase of the standard, the SSO require their members to self-disclose the patents which are or might be essential to the development of the standard.