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| | Submarine patents - definition of Submarine patents in Encyclopedia |
 | | Submarine patents are considered by many as a procedural lache (a delay in enforcing one's rights, which may cause the rights to be lost). | | | This practice is generally only possible under the US patent law, and to a very limited extent since the US signed WTO's TRIPs agreements, making compulsory the publication of patent applications 18 months after their filing or priority date. | | | A submarine patent is a patent published long after the original application was filed. |
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http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Submarine_patents
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| | The Problem of Software Patents in Standards |
| | The patent holder was awarded a half-billion-dollar judgment by the court. | | | The standards organization may require the patent holder to license the use of the specific claims within the patent that are necessary to implement the standard, rather than all claims of the patent. | | | Non-disclosure of a patent or patent application with intent to collect a royalty or license in a discriminatory fashion later on should be both a felony and a tort. |
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http://perens.com/Articles/PatentFarming.html
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| | Navigating the patent maze: Court Decisions |
| | Under United States patent law, if you are found to be a ‘willful infringer’(infringing a patent while knowing that you are infringing), liability can include up to triple damages and in exceptional cases, payment of the prevailing party’s attorney fees. | | | For several reasons, the number of submarine patents is diminishing: the U.S. now has a patent term of 20 years counted from the date of filing, and for the most part, patent applications are published 18 months after filing. | | | A U.S. District Court recently ruled that 14 patents of Lemelson's are invalid because "Lemelson's delay in securing the asserted patent claims is unexplained and unreasonable". |
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http://lorac.typepad.com/patent_blog/court_decisions
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| | Prosecution history laches in the case of Lemelson vs |
| | Ford, a hard-line patent litigant, argued that Lemelson’s patent should not be enforced because of his delays in the application process. | | | Many companies refused to accept the license agreements, calling the relevant Lemelson patents “submarine patents,” and arguing that because the patents relied on initial disclosures dating back to the mid-1950’s, they should not be enforceable today. | | | Submarine patents diminish this effort by creating a situation in which an inventor or a corporation, even after thorough legal research, has no way of knowing whether he will have the legal right to practice a technology in which he is considering investing substantial capital and effort. |
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http://www.jmls.edu/ripl/vol1/issue2/sutthiwan-middle.html
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| | Wray & Associates |
| | Until recently it was the situation in the United States that the specification of a US patent application was maintained confidential by the Patent Office and that the specification only became public when a patent was granted on the application. | | | Therefore it was possible for a patent applicant to maintain a US patent application for an invention pending and secret for a considerable period of time before the patent issued. | | | In addition US patent law enabled an applicant to keep an application pending for an unlimited period of time (and keeping the original application from proceeding to grant) by filing a series of continuing applications which all have priority to the original application. |
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http://www.wray.com.au/article_26.htm
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| | Patents - An Alternate View |
| | Software patents are being abused, but patents are important and useful, and with sensible reform to patent laws, patents could encourage innovation, which is the fundamental purpose of patent law. | | | Shift the burden of discovery of patent infringement to the patent holder. | | | Guidelines would help, for example three years might be a "grace period" where the presumption of a valid patent is with the patent holder, but after three years with no product on the market, the burden of proof of ongoing activity would shift to the patent holder. |
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http://www.moonviewscientific.com/essays/patents.htm
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| | Submarine Patents Surface in Aftermarket Litigation: |
| | Often times, however, these patents are not valid or are subject to legal abuse. | | | The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issues utility patents to owners or creators for inventions that are new and useful. | | | A utility patent is one of three statutory types of patents granted by the USPTO; the others are design and plant patents. |
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http://www.rechargermag.com/article.asp?id=199802053
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| | FTC 2002: Hearings on Anti-Competitive Effects of Patents |
| | Proposes abolishing patent examination and shifting to a registration system with penalties for patents which are invalidated in court. | | | Patent scope is adequate, antitrust laws should not "artificially" restrict patent rights, the courts should be free to decide, PTO should be given more money, etc. | | | For software it agrees than patents do not incentivate innovation, and competition does, but it says the patent system should not be changed, instead antitrust law should be applied to software patents (and other). |
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http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/ftc02/index.en.html
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| | Rambus in Court |
| | Patents derived by submarine tactics may or may not be enforceable depending upon the situation. | | | In the case of Rambus Inc.'s SDRAM patents, a strong argument can be made that the patents will be rendered invalid by the current court case. | | | Internal Rambus documents released recently by the court clearly indicate that Rambus had a business plan that involved submarine patents. |
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http://www.kickassgear.com/Articles/rambus_in_court.htm
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| | DEPO.com, Atkinson Baker - Nationwide Court Reporters and Deposition Reporting: reporters, rooms, video and translation ... |
| | Although Lemelson's patents did not contribute to the development of these devices, and in fact were issued after these devices were broadly in use, under pre-1994 patent law he was able to take advantage of the 1954 and 1956 filing dates to claim his devices predated other patents. | | | These are patents which "remain 'submerged' during a long ex parte examination process and then 'surface' upon the grant of the patent," allowing the patent holder to "demand high royalties from non-patent holders who invested and used the technology not knowing that patent would later be granted." DiscoVision Assocs. | | | While the trial court rejected this argument, a Federal Circuit panel ruled that prosecution laches was a valid claim. |
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http://www.depo.com/torpedoing.htm
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| | "Down But Not Out," Feature Article, October 2004 |
| | Until recently, a U.S. patent was enforceable for 17 years from the date of issue. | | | At times, his applications were given restrictions by the patent examiner, which meant that the application contained claims to more than one invention and therefore must be divided up in multiple patents. | | | Patent applications filed before the law passed were not affected. |
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http://www.memagazine.org/contents/current/features/downbut/downbut.html
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| | definition of submarine patent from Double-Tongued Word Wrester Dictionary |
| | D2: Occasionally, patents take a decade or two to be granted because they are held up in appeals and amendments in the Patent Office. | | | Such patents are sometimes referred to as submarine patents. | | | a patent that, when issued, forces companies already using the newly patented technology to pay retroactive licensing or rights fees. |
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http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/submarine_patent/P30
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| | InventorEd's Inventor Resource Internet Pages. Information about inventing, inventors, obtaining a patent, and ... |
| | In sum: A first "machine vision" patent was published (thereby meeting the "exchange") in 1963, but a reticent examiner prevented issuance of additional claims, and L was required to appeal twice to the Board of Appeals. | | | I submit that the 200 instances identified by the Commissioner of patents that issued after long delay (two thirds of which were subject to gov't imposed secrecy orders) fall into one or more of those three categories. | | | This might be a persuasive argument against permitting inventor-caused delay, particularly in those cases where the specification is not disclosed in a first patent. |
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http://www.inventored.org/inventors/Lemelson/hoffman-submarines.html
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| | IP & the Internet - Patents pg. 2 |
| | I believe this is a classic submarine patent.”[16] Regardless of the validity of the patents, Mr. | | | It involves the patent applicant applying for additional and/or extended claims before a patent is issued. | | | Furthermore, the U.S. Patent laws permit patent holders to sue not just those companies that make and sell infringing technology, but those that use it as well. |
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http://www.elywsluder.com/IP_patents_2.htm
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| | W3C makes patent ban final Tech News on ZDNet |
| | One such threat is the so-called submarine patent, which is a patent filed, but not granted, at the time a W3C technical recommendation is under construction. | | | Some proprietary software makers cash in on large patent portfolios by requiring licensing fees and may be reluctant to give away the rights to intellectual property after investing time and money creating the technology. | | | In shutting fee-bearing patents out of standards development in all but exceptional cases, it marks a compromise between open-source advocates and proprietary software companies. |
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http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-1008800.html
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| | MassLawBlog.Com » Submarines Sunk, Again |
| | So it may be that the era of “submarine patents” was already drawing to a close, thanks to a change in the patent statute, but the Federal Circuit has now declared it officially dead. | | | What’s more, courts (or at least the Federal Circuit) seem to be taking a harder look at patents brought before them, construing patent claims more narrowly, as in the recent and significant case of Phillips v. | | | It took an act of Congress, finally, to change the patent laws that allowed for submarine patents. |
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http://www.masslawblog.com/?page_id=29
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| | Patents |
| | Source: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, at the time this chart was made HGSI had 103 patents issued. | | | USPTO - the US Patent and Trade Office, Washington DC Patenting does not equal "owning" - patenting means that your IP is protected from use or commercialization by others, unless you decide to license or cross-license your IP and work out a suitable arrangement (royalties, etc). | | | But at the same time, it is not the patent office's job to police the availability of innovations. |
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http://www.biology.iupui.edu/biocourses/Biol540/11patents2k1.html
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| | Patently-O: Patent Law Blog: Submarine patent |
| | George Graff and Adam Kraidin have written a concise article for the Washington Legal Foundation that neatly summarizes current law on submarine patents. | | | by Dennis Crouch, patent attorney at McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP. | | | Reissue Patent Invalid Because Reissue Was Filed To Correct Procedural Error |
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http://patentlaw.typepad.com/patent/2004/05/submarine_paten.html
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| | Lackenbach Siegel today! Fall 2004 Newsletter |
| | The patents were held unenforceable under the doctrine of prosecution laches, a seldom used equitable remedy recognized first by the Supreme Court over 150 years ago in Kendall v. | | | Unfortunately, the USPTO allows patent term adjustments where the application is allowed both (a) without further amendment, and (b) after further action by the applicant (including the filing of a paper containing an argument, affidavit, an information disclosure statement, etc.). | | | The Patent Office has now recognized that when the Board “remands” noting the weakness of a final patent rejection, the Examiner often sua sponte decides to withdraw the rejection and allow the patent to issue rather than respond to the issues raised by the Board. |
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http://www.cyburban.com/~tarbeaty/ftp/Lackenbach/LS-FALL04NL-1.html
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| | They Claim The Workings of The Web |
| | Such gotchas are inherent in the U.S. patent system, said Douglas Kline, chair of the Patent and Intellectual Property Practice Group at the Boston law firm Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, because a claimant doesn't need to prove intent to infringe. | | | Unicast used its patent on the process of placing a tag on a Web page that communicates with remote ad servers to demand license fees from rivals. | | | That can be especially unfair when the patents cover what have become de facto standards. |
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http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3318751
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| | InternetNews Realtime News for IT Managers |
| | [July 06, 2005] After three years of debate, legislation to provide unified software patent protections across the EU is halted. | | | [September 28, 2005] Indications are that seven-year-old patent on ActiveX and other applets may stand. | | | [April 26, 2005] Intel patent chief tells Senate panel too many infringement suits are fast-buck affairs. |
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http://www.internetnews.com/index.php/21231
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| | Electronic Business: Troubled waters for submarine patents. (Business Trends). |
| | Under laches, someone accused of patent infringement can argue that the patent holder waited too long to get the patent to the detriment of other inventors. | | | An action by the U.S. Supreme Court could make it more difficult to enforce submarine patents, viewed by many electronics companies as a nuisance. | | | In January 2002, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the defendants in... |
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http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3036/is_200212/ai_n7737830
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| | Submarine patents |
| | There is a quirk in the European Patent Convention that the filing and search fees are due a month after filing. | | | This is all very nice, and gives a period in which the fees can be sent to Munich or the Hague by post (cheques not being acceptable for applications filed at the national offices). |
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http://www.davidharris.org.uk/patent
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| | Overlawyered: Submarine patents run aground |
| | Big news from federal court in Nevada: U.S. District Judge Philip Pro ruled that the estate of deceased inventor Jerome Lemelson "can't enforce 14 patents relating to machine vision and bar-code technologies because the prolific inventor and his estate waited too long to pursue the alleged infringers. | | | "It's now essentially terminated." For more on the fabulous Lemelson patent litigation machine, see May 10, 2001 and links from there; Feb. | | | Chronicling the high cost of our legal system |
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http://www.overlawyered.com/archives/000769.html
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| | [No title] |
| | !100594 Another Lemelson "submarine" software patent For those of you who have fans of Jerome Lemelson, here is yet another of his "submarine" patents that issued, with a continuation/division chain back to 1954. | | | For those of you who hate submarine patents, your fears of lawsuits will be well fed by the claims to this patent, which are infringed by most of US industry. | | | The detector generates analog image signals resulting from the detected radiation, and an electronic computer process and analyzes the analog signals and generates digital codes, which may be stored or employed to control a display. |
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http://www.ibiblio.org/patents/txt/100594.txt
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| | patents: case 7 |
| | Litigation such as Lemelson's has caused patent lawyers to seek a change in patent terms to start from the date of application rather than issuance of the patent. | | | Lemelson has filed around 500 patents and spends most of his time finding ways that companies may have infringed on his patents. | | | Lemelson's case against Ford was dismissed on the grounds that Lemson was producing "submarine" patents. |
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http://www.me.utexas.edu/~me179/topics/patents/case7.html
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| | Wired News: New Quest: Mapping Gene Patents |
| | Skip directly to: Search Box, Section Navigation, Content. | | | Technology licensing is becoming a profit center, and universities are seeking more and more patents. | | | In January, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office finalized guidelines forbidding stealth patenting, but finding these patents will be a long process. |
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http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,42214,00.html
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| | The Tech Report - "Submarine patents" to sink Rambus? |
| | The release of internal company documents by a San Jose U.S. District Court magistrate earlier this month has raised the issue of whether Rambus used so-called "submarine" tactics to secure rights to the contested DRAM technology. | | | The Tech Report - "Submarine patents" to sink Rambus? | | | News comments and forum posts remain property of posters. |
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http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/2002
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