But I see many patents doing the same thing

[rfycom]

Looking at a patent that protects steps to take to accomplish a business task. I can call it many things but it is a business process. If I call the process something new isn't that infringing on the older patents that patent a business process?

[Brad]

I am not sure if I understand your questions properly but generally just naming something differently or using different terminology is not enough to get around a valid patent so likely it would still infringe on that patent.

Example:

Patent claims a bicycle with two wheels.

I make a bicycle with two tires. 

Tires and wheels are substantially the same thing and work in substantially the same way so they are seen as "equivalents" and those are likely covered by the patent.  See this:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctrine_of_equivalents#United_States

[Ray]

Sorry for being vague. I see a patent that protects the process of scheduling a posting to a social media platform, but I also see many patents that patent a business process. One is US20080147467A1 - A method and system of configuring a business process for scheduling the business process comprising a plurality of activities, each activity comprising at least one of a start date type and a stop date type; the activities being in a time relationship to each other; wherein the business process is freely configurable with respect to the plurality of activities and with respect to the time relationships of the activities to each other.  Why is protecting the scheduling of a post to a social media platform not covered in this patent?

[Brad]

A few things to consider.

1)  US20080147467A1 is not a "patent", its only a published patent application.   People can file a patent application on anything they want but it does not become an official "patent" until its reviewed and approved by an examiner.  Likely here they were unable to get a patent issued because it was too close to other patents.


2) A patent (or published patent application) may describe a whole bunch of stuff which does not seem new enough for a patent.  The key is to pay attention to the "claims" section.  The claims will tell you exactly what they have protection for and is often a lot more narrow and specific than what you read in the abstract or text of the application.  More on patent claims here:  https://patentfile.org/what-are-patent-claims/