OBSTACLES TO PATENTS Tim Headley How To Successfully Protect Your Invention

YOURE ANTICIPATED! Oa. the invention was known or used by others in this country, …

YOURE ANTICIPATED! Oor described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country, before the invention.

YOURE ANTICIPATED! Ob. the invention was patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country, …

YOURE ANTICIPATED! Oor in public use or on sale in this country, more than one year prior to the date of application for patent. One year

ANTICIPATION all of the elements and limitations of the claim are found within a single prior art reference

How do you avoid anticipation? Professional Organizations Technical Journals The Companys Inventors Internet Patent Searches

U.S. Patent Abstracts Database (by the PTO) access/search-bool.html IBM Patent Server Home Page com/

YOU COPIED! Of. he did not himself invent the subject matter sought to be patented…

LOST THE RACE! Og. before the applicants invention thereof the invention was made in this country by another who had not abandoned, suppressed, or concealed it.

Requirements For Invention Disclosures +The inventors, their addresses, and phone numbers +The title of the invention +Purpose of the invention

Requirements For Invention Disclosures DATES OF: 4First oral disclosure, first drawing 4First written description 4First successful test 4First disclosure outside 4First publication

OBVIOUS? Of. the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art … Of. the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art …

OBVIOUS? Oare such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious … Oare such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious …

OBVIOUS? O at the time the invention was made … O at the time the invention was made …

OBVIOUS? Oto a person having ordinary skill … Oto a person having ordinary skill …

OBVIOUS? Oin the art to which said subject matter pertains.

Requirements For Invention Disclosures Known Prior Art Techniques for Solving the Above Problems (at least the three closest patents, technical articles, technical specifications, or product descriptions) Disadvantages of the old techniques

Requirements For Invention Disclosures A detailed description including sketches, etc. of the invention, including what you feel are the novel features of the invention, and how it solves the foregoing problems.

NO PATENTS FOR: MERE IDEAS: Drive-in theatre LAWS OF NATURE: Gravity MATH FORMULAS: E=mc 2

Patent Software! 4,528,643 System for reproducing information in material objects at a point of sale location (selling and downloading digital information between computers) IBM bought a license.

Patent Software! 5,220,501 Method for remote delivery of retail banking services All expenditures made through a 'real time' debit network from any in-home terminal

BMC Software Patents 5,005,137 Method for optimizing data streams containing two-byte characters 5,396,623 Method for editing the contents of a DB2 table using an editproc manager 5,440,692 Method of dynamically expanding or contracting a DB2 buffer pool

Input/Outputs Software Patent 5,761,153 Method of locating hydrophones

Method of locating hydrophones A method of computing the location of air guns and hydrophones within a seismic spread utilizing a navigation network having a plurality of stations,

Method of locating hydrophones the network providing a plurality of navigation observations, a number of the observations consisting of magnetic bearings used to derive the hydrophone locations, the method comprising the steps of:

åFile early. åSoftware is patentable. åDont assume obviousness. REMEMBER...