Source: http://patentagentone.com/category/uncategorized/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 16:47:10+00:00

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Many clients come to me with a drawing of their invention. Part of my job is asking them how they could change that drawing and still have the invention work.
The purpose of filing a patent application is not to define your product, it is to define all products that you want to exclude from the marketplace where your product is being sold.
The life of a patent is 20 years. If you can envision features that you would want to add in five, ten or even fifteen years, you should be describing them in the application you are preparing now. The same goes for alternative approaches that you are not certain are feasible.
When a client comes back after three years and says they want to file a new application to cover additional product development and I can show them where the new development is described in the existing application it means we did a good job on that first application.
An earlier post dealt with the question “What form Reform?” We now have at least a partial answer to that question. A series of amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure took effect on December 1, 2015. A number of these changes will influence patent litigation.
Two working principles underlie our decision in Twombly. First, the tenet that a court must accept as true all of the allegations contained in a complaint is inapplicable to legal conclusions. … Second, only a complaint that states a plausible claim for relief survives a motion to dismiss. Determining whether a complaint states a plausible claim for relief will, as the Court of Appeals observed, be a context-specific task that requires the reviewing court to draw on its judicial experience and common sense. In keeping with these principles a court considering a motion to dismiss can choose to begin by identifying pleadings that, because they are no more than conclusions, are not entitled to the assumption of truth. While legal conclusions can provide the framework of a complaint, they must be supported by factual allegations. When there are well-pleaded factual allegations, a court should assume their veracity and then determine whether they plausibly give rise to an entitlement to relief. Our decision in Twombly illustrates the two-pronged approach.
In the context of patent litigation the old Rule 84 created a dichotomy between “judicial experience” and “common sense”. Elimination of Rule 84 opens the door to common sense, amd the Supreme court has defined this term to some extent by requiring “factual allegations” which must be “well pleaded”. It is not yet clear how high the bar will be for a claim to survive a motion to dismiss, but it will undoubtedly be higher than the bar set by the old form 18.
Raising the bar for filing a patent infringement complaint may do more to curb dubious patent suits than all of the proposed “patent reform” bills that congress has been considering over the last few years would have done if they had all been voted into law. This is a welcome change because it will be applied to all players in the game, whether they are practicing entities or not.The second change is that procedures will move faster. The new versions of rules 4(m), 16, and 26(f) mean that due dates for various pre-trial events will be 30 to 60 days earlier. This may work to the advantage of patentees because they can get their materials ready in advance, before filing the complaint. Accused infringers will have less time to get organized to respond.
The third change deals with the scope of discovery. Rule 26(b)(1) now limits discovery to material which “is relevant to any party’s claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case” (amended text in italics). Under old rule 26(b)(2) proportionality limitations only applied if there was a court order to that effect. Now they are the default.
f) whether the burden or expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit.
The new version of Rule 26(c)(1)(B) provides that “the allocation of expenses” can be included in a protective order. This means that the court can allocate the cost of discovery, or portions of the discovery, to one of the parties in the suit.
The net effect of these changes to the discovery rules may be more modest discovery requests and/or more judicial limitation of sweeping discovery requests.
In summary, the new rules seem to offer significant protection against abuse of the system by wealthy players enforcing patents with vague claims against large numbers of alleged infringers. It remains to be seen whether these measures will dampen the public outcry to “fix” the patent system.
What Should My Patent Agent Do?
from the first time they meet.
of a patent application, filing of the application and examination of the application.
and which features are optional.
agent and inventor agree on a set of patent claims which define the scope of protection desired.
each set directed to a different aspect of the invention.
these questions in as much detail as possible.
reads the application. Any concerns the inventor has should be addressed by the agent.
can be provided the same day.
This is often the most frustrating stage for the inventor for two reasons.
examination there are, the total time to grant can be much longer.
rejected does not necessarily mean that no patent will be granted.
There are two categories of reasons why the grounds for rejection may be incorrect.
The first category of reasons why the grounds for rejection may be incorrect is technical reasons.
Technical reasons are based upon an incorrect interpretation of cited references by the Examiner.
The second category of reasons why the grounds for rejection may be incorrect is legal reasons.
important that the inventor discuss the impact of the proposed amendments on the business plan.
make sure that it is complete and accurate.
list of talking points can help the agent present arguments in a logical and convincing order.
your own and cooperate fully with requests to provide information or review documents.
From a psychological perspective, a sale is made when the value (or perceived value) is equal to or greater than the cost (financial or otherwise). Legal Services are no different. If a client perceives the cost of a service to be lower than the value of the service, the client will engage the attorney or firm in a transaction in which each feels that they are getting the better deal.
This article is written primarily for the benefit of the consumer / client. However, this is valuable information for providers of Legal Services as well. Why? Just as any defense attorney will tell you that one key to success is to completely understand your opponent, it is critical to understand the needs of the client to get to a point where an agreement will be made to engage in a mutually beneficial business transaction.
This is the first part of a two part series. Look for part 2, Seven Things You Can Do to Get Good Value When Purchasing Legal Services in the upcoming weeks.
1) Define your needs: Ask yourself, how complex is the legal matter? For example, a person that has been married once and has two children will have a much simpler time making a will than a person that has been married four times and has children from each marriage.
2) Assess the risk of future disputes: The risk may be related to complexity (e.g. the more children and spouses, the more likely that one or more of them will contest the will), or to the nature of the parties to the matter. For example, if you are selling your vacation cabin to your brother-in-law, there may be less risk than if you sell the same property to an unknown purchaser that responded to an Internet listing. For some very low risk matters, the quality of service may be a negligible factor, provided that it is above a minimum threshold. In these very low risk matters there is almost no additional “bang” for each additional “buck”.
3) Define your budget: Even if you eventually exceed your budget, starting with a budget can help you identify added value, if potential service providers try to sell it to you. For determining an initial budget, think of the legal service you are purchasing in terms what you are protecting with it. For example, if you get a ticket for driving while intoxicated (DWI), the cost of the ticket may be $500. In addition, your auto insurance premium will go up by $5,000/year for 5 years ($25,000). In addition, the judge may suspend your license for up to two months. You estimate that making alternative transportation arrangements for two months would cost you an additional $2,000. That means the total cost could be $27,500. Ask yourself how much you are willing to spend to avoid all, or most, of that cost. Then factor in the intangibles like the headache of making alternative transportation arrangements.
4) Be prepared: Prepare written material that is relevant to the task. For example, if you are making a will, a list of assets is needed, as well as a list of beneficiaries and an allocation plan. For a real estate transaction, you need the details of the property, the buyer, and the seller. Coming to the first meeting prepared makes it easier for the attorney to offer you a good price.
5) Get personal recommendations: Ask people whom you trust to recommend people whom they trust. For example, if you have a tax attorney, that attorney may be able to recommend someone that specializes in estate planning or real estate transactions.
6) Get online ratings: Look for online ratings or recommendations in the relevant field of service.
7) Make a preliminary decision and schedule an initial consultation.Make sure to ask whether you will be billed for the initial consultation, and if so, what will the cost be and will it be included as part of the overall fee for service.
After completing Items 1 through 7, you are ready to make a purchase decision. See part two in the upcoming weeks for advice on how to make that decision.
On June 16 2015 the CAFC delivered a precedential opinion in Williamson v Citrix.The panel considering the case was expanded to en banc to consider the role of the word “means” in invoking §112; paragraph 6 (now §112(f) of the AIA).
In a footnote to the decision we are reminded that overruling of prior precedent can only be done by the court en banc, so other members of the court join the panel for part II.C.1 of the decision.
We are reminded that it was only in 2004 that the idea that “the presumption flowing from the absence of the term ‘means’ is a strong one that is not readily overcome” (emphasis added)…” Lighting World, Inc. v. Birchwood Lighting, Inc., 382 F.3d 1354, 1358 (Fed. Cir. 2004) was put forth, although that decision cited a 1999 Federal Circuit decision.
Subsequent decisions in Lighting World, Inventio, Flo Healthcare and Apple established a heightened bar to overcoming the presumption that a limitation expressed in functional language without using the word “means” is not subject to § 112, para. 6.
This “precedential” decision is actually much closer to the Supplementary Examination Guidelines for Determining Compliance with 35 U.S.C. 112 and for Treatment of Related Issues in Patent Applications from the Federal register of February 9, 2011 that the intervening CAFC decisions mentioned above.
Both the Williamson decision and the supplementary guidelines suggest that “nonce” words such as “mechanism” or “module” are not inherently structural.
Review of the specification revealed that it “fails to disclose structure corresponding to the “coordinating” function.” of the “distributed learning control module”.
The written description of the ’840 patent makes clear that the distributed learning control module cannot be implemented in a general purpose computer, but instead must be implemented in a special purpose computer—a general purpose computer programmed to perform particular functions pursuant to instructions from program software. A special purpose computer is required because the distributed learning control module has specialized functions as outlined in the written description. See, e.g., ’840 patent col.5 ll.48–64. In cases such as this, involving a claim limitation that is subject to § 112, para. 6 that must be implemented in a special purpose computer, this court has consistently required that the structure disclosed in the specification be more than simply a general purpose computer or microprocessor.
E.g., Aristocrat Techs. Austl. Pty Ltd. v. Int’l Game Tech., 521 F.3d 1328, 1333 (Fed. Cir. 2008) (citing WMS Gaming, Inc. v. Int’l Game Tech., 184 F.3d 1339 (Fed. Cir. 1999)). We require that the specification disclose an algorithm for performing the claimed function. Net MoneyIN, Inc. v. VeriSign, Inc., 545 F.3d 1359, 1367 (Fed. Cir. 2008). The algorithm may be expressed as a mathematical formula, in prose, or as a flow chart, or in any other manner that provides sufficient structure. Noah, 675 F.3d at 1312 (citing Finisar Corp. v. DirecTV Grp., Inc., 523 F.3d 1323, 1340 (Fed. Cir. 2008)).
This is puzzling because the abstract idea, expressed as an algorithm, is simply instructions to “implement it” on a general purpose computer. In cases like Alice that type of algorithm/computer combination raised §101 issues. In this case it is proposed as a solution to § 112 issues.
In this case the court made it abundantly clear that figures of user interfaces do not constitute an algorithm corresponding to the claimed functions.
Summary: For those of us working with computer implemented inventions the combination of §101; §112 paragraph 6 and §112 paragraph 2 is beginning to look like the Bermuda triangle. The only advice to offer is include lots of diagrams and text about how your algorithms work. That way if §112 paragraph six becomes an issue, you will hopefully have sufficient structure to avoid an indefiniteness rejection based upon §112 second paragraph. The interplay with §101 is not yet clear.
The court en banc changes the law and practice of 35 U.S.C. § 112 paragraph 6, by eliminating the statutory signal of the word “means.” The purpose of this change, the benefit, is obscure. The result, however, is clear: additional uncertainty of the patent grant, confusion in its interpretation, invitation to litigation, and disincentive to patent-based innovation.
Many readers may agree with Judge Newman.

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