Patent Law Essentials for Business Planning

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PATENT PROTRACTOR: A Tool for at Least One Prudent Business Planner

by Dr. Michael Blaine Brooks is now available via Amazon.com for those having a KINDLE subscription. (This is an electronic version of the book.)

A print-on-demand version of the book in paperback is also available at CreateSpace.com, a subsidiary of Amazon.com.

If you would prefer an e-book in a format other than Kindle, The Patent Protractor is available via Mobipocket. This version is downloadable to a variety of platforms but does include digital rights management (DRM) and requires the installation of the Mobipocket Reader.

Please consider going to Amazon.com and read more about the Kindle Edition or the print edition of The Patent Protractor.

For a paper version of the book, printed at your request, go to CreateSpace.com.

The Patent Protractor
♦A US patent may be asserted in federal civil court by the patent owner: (1) in order to stop others from using, making, trying to sell or actually selling, what is claimed in the patent; or (2) at least as an attempt to receive a reasonable royalty (that one hopes is greater than the cost of the litigation) from the person or company that is using, making, or selling, what is claimed in the patent.♦ A US patent IS NOT A MONOPOLY granted by the US Government to BOTH : Exclude others AND Practice the claims of the invention without regard to the patents of others. ♦ When the US Patent Office grants a patent, there is no warranty that accompanies the grant that states: a person or entity following the granted claims does not also infringe some other unexpired patent. ♦ Just because the device seen at a tradeshow has never made it to the marketplace does not mean it is not covered by a patent.

♦ Just because a presumed invention has never before been in existence, one does not automatically have a basis for the US Patent Office granting a patent for the claimed invention.♦ Just because the claimed solution to a problem has never made it to the marketplace does not mean it is patentable.
♦ Just because the invention has never made it to the marketplace does not mean it is not covered by a patent owned by someone else. ♦ A literal read of a patent claim is insufficient to assess whether you or your company may be infringing the patent claim. ♦ An individuals technology business plan should extend beyond shopping a provisional patent application around for twelve months. ♦ Efficient technology (R&D) business planning incorporates assessments of the state of the art with particular awareness of technology claimed by others.

Why read this book?
Using illustrations and condensed topics presented as summaries, the Patent Protractor attempts to expand the reader's understanding of patents and the patent system: crushing patent myths and moving the prudent business planner beyond simplistic maxims such as "Got an idea? Get a patent!"

Who might read this book?
Independent inventors, business planners, investors, corporate intellectual property (IP) portfolio managers, non-IP attorneys, engineers and scientists may each find points of interest within the chapters of the Patent Protractor. Anyone contemplating or charged with using the patent system as a means of commercially exploiting an invention is a technology business planner...or at least should act as one. The intent of Patent Protractor is to incite technology-oriented business planners, once infused with a revised or least refreshed patent perspective, to ask themselves again, "Why are we pursuing a patent and WHAT IF we don't?" Business planners presently developing complex business plans may appreciate the added dimensions provided by the Patent Protractor particularly if the draft business plan allocates but a single line to address the universe of patent issues.

Weigh Costs of Obtaining & Enforcing Patent Against the Expected Commercial Superiority of the Invention

Chapter Six Overview of Non-Provisional Patent Examination
Chapter Seven Continuing Applications: Co-pending applications and Utility Patent Terms
Chapter Eight All Claims Rejected: Responding to Office Actions
Chapter Nine Direct Foreign Patent Application Filings and National Stage Entries
Chapter Ten An International Application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty
Chapter Eleven Design Patent Applications
Chapter Twelve Claims and Asserting Infringement
Chapter Thirteen Proactive Patent Defense and Inventing Around Patent Claims
Chapter Fourteen Claim Considerations, Computer-Based Networking Examples
Chapter Fifteen Hypothetical Case Studies with Numbers

Why Read This Book While Planning the Exploitation of an Invention?
Before investing a great deal of time and money toward pursuing patents, the Patent Protractor prompts a moment of reflection:

Do you have what is or will be a commercially superior invention?
Have you considered the costs and timelines for obtaining (or being denied) a patent?
Have you considered patents owned by competitors?
Have you considered the costs of enforcing and defending patents domestically and abroad?

Do the invention or planned research and development target a commercially efficient solution to an identified problem in the marketplace not yet addressed by the targeted innovation?

If the solution is at hand, was it the result of surmounting technical hurdles and/or experimental results? Was the solution an unexpected or unpredictable result to those of ordinary skill in the technical field to which it pertains?

Ample context provided within the Patent Protractor permits a rich engagement between the patent owner or patent applicant and the patent professional with the intent that a better appreciation of the patent system by the applicant/owner may lead to a cost-efficient use of the patent system.
Read The Patent Protractor writeup by the Buenaventura Section of the IEEE.

Awareness of the Possible Infringement is at Least as Important as the Patent Right to Exclude

Why Read This Book After the Patent Application is Filed or After the Patent is Granted?
The Patent Protractor is written for anyone already on the winding road of patent prosecution or uphill climb of patent enforcement.

Having initiated one or more patent applications or presently owning one or more patents, the Patent Protractor prompts moments of reflection:

Do the patent claims under examination or presently allowed address a commercially superior solution and are at least some of these claims directed toward parties expected to be most interested in commercially exploiting the claimed solution?

The Costs of Pursuing and Perhaps Enforcing a Patent Should be Justified by at Least One of the Above Reasons

The Patent Protactor should be considered for your paper or electronic library if you are: (a) a technology business planner; (b) presently reviewing an R&D proposal; and/or (c) updating a business plan involving technology.

If US patent law appears to be a puzzle piece that has yet to be integrated into your planned technological mosaic, then consider investing a weekend reading The Patent Protractor.

The Patent Protractor: A Tool for at Least One Prudent Business Planner is presently available as an ebook via KINDLE (Amazon.com), as a print-on-demand paperback (Amazon.com, CreateSpace.com), and as a non-Kindle ebook (Mobipocket.com). The Patent Protractor is written in a generalized format for broad consumption in order to prompt efficient and meaningful dialog between a prospective or actual patent applicant and the applicant's patent professional. Great pain was taken in tailoring the book so that no specific problem of any individual or company is addressed and as such the book is by no means a substitute for seeking and following the advice of patent counsel. Not only is it highly recommended that any party seriously contemplating steps toward entering or continuing within the patent process do so in consultation with patent counsel, such collaboration is presumed throughout the book. The book does not reflect past, present or future positions, arguments, and opinions of any law firm, particularly the past and present firms of which the author has been or is presently associated. Most importantly, no action by anyone should be taken solely relying on the contents of in this book other than the very strong recommendation that advice of patent counsel can prove invaluable. -MBB