Show HN: Explore ideas whose patent protection expires today

Post by md2be » Tue, Jan 03, 2017, 11:50 PM UTC

wetherbeei wrote: post #72

niko001 wrote: post #2

The majority [1] of patents are never commercially exploited or licensed - I wanted a way to browse recently expired patents to find hidden gems and get inspired by existing inventions. The site uses the recently released USPTO-API [2] to fetch newly expired patents each day. NB: The reason the most recent patents displayed are from 12/31 is because no new patents were granted during the first few days of January 199…

I run Google Patents (patents.google.com) - we've thought about including a way to search by expired patents (we have the expiration indicators), but in my opinion it gives a false sense of security. There's also http://freeip.mtu.edu/home/index.php , which searches over only expired patents. The patent in question could have been improved upon, and that improvement can still be in force. Say someone patents a widget…

Post by kevinwang » Wed, Jan 04, 2017, 12:42 AM UTC

ghayes wrote: post #120

kevinwang wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without patents, inventing would not be profitable. All products would have exact copycats and ripoffs.

The majority of software companies don't hold any patents (aside of copyrights). As such, it doesn't seem necessary that patents are the only means to profit from "inventing."

Post by ajmurmann » Wed, Jan 04, 2017, 2:39 AM UTC

kevinwang wrote: post #123

ghayes wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The majority of software companies don't hold any patents (aside of copyrights). As such, it doesn't seem necessary that patents are the only means to profit from "inventing."

But as you say, they have intellectual property protection. Isn't the copyright protection that software developers get over their software analogous in this sense to the protection that patent owners get over their inventions? Unless you just meant to split hairs over copyright vs. patent, in which case I agree. I should have said something like "intellectual property protection" instead of "patents".

Post by kevinwang » Wed, Jan 04, 2017, 2:58 AM UTC

ajmurmann wrote: post #125

kevinwang wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But as you say, they have intellectual property protection. Isn't the copyright protection that software developers get over their software analogous in this sense to the protection that patent owners get over their inventions? Unless you just meant to split hairs over copyright vs. patent, in which case I agree. I should have said something like "intellectual property protection" instead of "patents".

Patents and copyright work quite differently and patents aren't really appropriate for software. Patents allow you to be too granular in what you protect to make sense for software. I think a good comparison would be protecting combinations of two musical notes in music. This would dramatically impact creation of new songs because you are protecting something too trivial. The equivalent happened when software patents…

Post by vitus » Wed, Jan 04, 2017, 3:44 AM UTC

sfifs wrote: post #38

swalsh wrote: post #4

Fellow hackers, a word of advice... always start with the marketing before building a product. I too think a power actuated toilet seat sounds like a fantastic foundation for a business, but it's what the market things... not what your gut thinks.

> I too think a power actuated toilet seat sounds like a fantastic foundation for a business I take it you haven't been to Japan or the more trendy hotels and condos in China (where Japanese stuff are significant influence). In this comment, you appear to be equally gut based on what appears to be Western cultural influence.