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Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is sad that you even need to 'seek discovery' to check such things. Why is it even possible to do business anonymously?
Why shouldn't it be? Private enterprise is private.
has long had an interface for searching patents, and here we see one example of an application of full-text searching of patent filings. Part of what has made patent law an arcane subfield of law has been the tedious reference work necessary to look up what has already been patented. If Google fulfills its mission of organizing the world's information, patent law will become clearer--perhaps clearly ridiculous in more than a few cases--and at length patent litigation will play less of a role in impeding technical innovation. Technology for the win.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not checking for prior art when filing the patent application. Sorry, I guess my comment above looked like I was talking about the current litigation.
You don't have to do that, and most people don't. If you happen to know about some relevant prior art, then you have a duty to disclose it to the PTO... but you don't have to go looking for it.
I was afraid that Groklaw wouldn't be any good now that PJ isn't heading it up anymore, but I really shouldn't have worried. Still informed, insightful, opinionated, and funny.
I wish they will do more so every news piece will stop quoting the terrible Florian Muller
I really don't understand why so many people seem to think they are better than Muller, other than perhaps because they enjoy being told what they wanted to hear regardless of truth.
Someone should create a database of all similar patents that are granted so it's easier to prove that other patents are invalid because they are equivalent to the ones found to be invalid, essentially disarming them.
Listen to the "When Patents Attack" podcast: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/441/w...
Someone created a system where they can enter a claim and go back and see how many times that claim was already granted in a patent. The one they looked up found something like 5000+ prior claims.
Why the USPTO doesn't use this software before approving patents is beyond me.
This is a nice piece of work. And it is refreshing to see Google jump in here. When I saw they paid $12.5B for the Motorola patents I wondered why, if they were willing to play at that level, they couldn't set aside 200 - 300M for a bunch of greybeards and IP lawyers to sit around dissecting the patent database, every journal article ever printed, etc and just obliterate a crap ton of the stupid patents. Now an evil…
Otherwise this outcome doesn't do much to quell my anxiety as a small entrepreneur.
From the comments: Taking a weapon that is susceptible to a search for prior art, up against a company that specializes in search is a bad plan. Hah. Wonder if Lodsys will sue their lawyers?
From the comments: Taking a weapon that is susceptible to a search for prior art, up against a company that specializes in search is a bad plan. Hah. Wonder if Lodsys will sue their lawyers?
Lodsys is their lawyers. It's not a real company. It's a patent attorney who registered a company specifically as a vehicle to monetize the four patents they purchased/licensed from Intellectual Ventures.