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Can you patent a system involving hardware and software?
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Posted by Gregor Okorn on May 07, 2000 at 09:44:33:
I've got what I believe to be a good idea, and I don't know if or how it could be patented. Without giving too much description, it would involve a combination and coordination of hardware and software. Some of the hardware would be off-the-shelf, maybe even all of it, but the software would be new. The more I think about the idea I can see how it could be sold to a customer in either a package or in pieces. It's conceivable that a customer would only be interested in one of the hardware pieces and not any accompanying hardware or software pieces. I was originally thinking that I would want a single patent for the entire system, but as I thought of how a customer might not want the entire system, I'm thinking that I would probably want to try to get the individual pieces patented. If I did that, would there be a way to get a system level patent that protected the right of selling the pieces together to form a larger system? Who would be the best person to talk to? A patent attorney, or someone else? Thanks, Gregor
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