New Patent Law Actually Makes Life Harder For Startups

Re:New Patent Law Actually Makes Life Harder For Startups by wccrawford on Monday September 19, 2011 @12:20PM (#3014121)

I thought the same thing, until someone pointed out that if you publish information on your invention, it makes it impossible for anyone else to file after that. (Prior art.) However, YOU can still file up to a year later. (In Europe, it works as prior art against yourself, though. Meaning you can't file, either.)

That effectively makes it 'first to publish' rather than 'first to file'.

I am not a lawyer, and neither was the person who told me this.

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Re:New Patent Law Actually Makes Life Harder For Startups by padrack on Monday September 19, 2011 @12:22PM (#3014132)

I believe under the new law you would need to show you employed your invention as part of a business prior to their filing in order to have a case for prior art.

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Re:New Patent Law Actually Makes Life Harder For Startups by tptacek on Monday September 19, 2011 @12:46PM (#3014238)

Am I misreading this, or is what you said the opposite of true?

http://www.law.com/jsp/nylj/PubArticleNY.jsp?id=120251473037...

(It is very likely I'm misreading it).

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Re:New Patent Law Actually Makes Life Harder For Startups by jaekwon on Monday September 19, 2011 @01:06PM (#3014312)

I'm an entrepreneur and inventor. I want to make a record here that I have no fucking idea whether publishing my invention is enough to have Prior Art, or whether I need to state the use of the invention in my business case, or whether I need to file a patent.

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Re:New Patent Law Actually Makes Life Harder For Startups by tptacek on Monday September 19, 2011 @01:15PM (#3014342)

As an entrepreneur, an "inventor", and a patentholder: I believe this is simple:

(a) if you're planning on staking a claim on a patent, get a patent lawyer (no part of this bill reduces the need for IP lawyers; whether you like the concept of requiring IP lawyers or not is besides the point).

(b) if you're not planning on getting a patent (and I think you shouldn't, for simple pragmatic reasons), just publish what you're doing as soon as you can, and you'll have established a prior art track record.

The reform we're talking about changes the mechanics of competing claims for a patent, but it doesn't make prior art harder to establish (my understanding is that in a variety of little ways it makes prior art easier to establish).

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Re:New Patent Law Actually Makes Life Harder For Startups by wccrawford on Monday September 19, 2011 @12:40PM (#3014213)

Oh jeez. The only way to make that fair would be to require that people employ the invention as part of a business prior to suing, too.

But of course, that won't be in there.

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