Messages

1

Patent Questions and Advice / Re: patentable idea in the product

« on: June 19, 2020, 03:20:51 PM »

In that example Apple would have filed for a patent years before it hit the market so by the time people outside of Apple see this new feature they either already have a patent issued or they are very close to getting a patent issued.

In your case, if the product is already in the market it may be too late to file a patent.  If it was introduced in the market less than 12 months ago you may still be able to patent but in the USA only.

Brad,

In my field of work I have seen many patent ideas being created during the course of the project.
This is normally the case as most of the ideas are created in order to solve real issues encountered during the project execution. However, it rarely happens that the product waits for the patents to enter a safe period.
How do you think companies manage?
Do they not reveal the ideas used in the product? or
they release the product but dont expose the idea?

Thanks

2

Patent Questions and Advice / patentable idea in the product

« on: June 14, 2020, 09:27:48 AM »

One of the ideas I have implemented is used in one of the our company's product.
It is one of the features of our product. Since it is part of the product, the feature has to be documented from the product perspective and can be seen by anyone else.
The idea is still under patent process. So, how to protect the idea in such cases.

In case my question is not clear, let me take an example.
As an example, let us say Apple has a unique way to design the camera interface.
Apple will, obviously, market this feature in its phone.
So, how does Apple protect the idea as so information has to be shared about the feature

3

Patent Questions and Advice / Re: Patent worthiness

« on: June 14, 2020, 09:21:34 AM »

Hi,

Sorry questions 1-3 would require a good bit of thought and analysis to answer properly so I cannot do that online here.  For question #4, publishing a paper or doing any public display or offer for sale of your invention prior to filing a patent application can have negative consequences.

For a United States patent you have a 12 month 'grace period' to file your patent application after a publication but most other countries around the world do not give you that grace period so you should always try to file the patent application first before you go public with it.

Thank you very much. I have a follow-up question that I will create a new thread for.

4

Patent Questions and Advice / Patent worthiness

« on: June 13, 2020, 11:26:08 AM »

My area of work is related to VLSI.
I have not created a prototype solution which basically uses available machine learning methods to analyze the data and provide intelligence.
As an example, as a part of verification, a lot of messages are generated in the form of log files.
Now, the program I have created uses this data, analyzes this data and provides more digested data.
In the absence of this, manual way of analysis has to be used. More advanced option is to use some scripting.
My method provides method analysis because it uses machine learning methods which are more powerful compared to the 2 previous methods.

My questions:
1) Such analysis methods are normally available in software domain. For example, log analysis.
Does that make my idea not worthy of a patent?
2) Even if such methods already exist, I believe my approach is different from other methods even though the end goals would be the same. The end goal being, to reduce manual method of analyzing the data
3) Since my method uses available machine learning techniques, does it have any impact if i try to patent.
I have not invented any new method but I have used available methods available to solve the problem
4) I am also planning to publish some papers based on this work I have done. I have not done it already.
Will publishing paper have any implications on patenting

Thanks a lot ...