JSonnabend

[patentologist]

Hi

Another question i had was:

If there is a unexpired patent already out there that claims
"a method for classifying data, comprising:
receiving an input comprising keywords;
parsing the keywords from the input;
matching the keywords to categories containing predefined keywords; and
classifying the input to at least one of the categories based on the keywords of the input.

Basically, this is browsing an article having keywords such as Obama, healthcare
and then parsing those keywords to match to categories so they can classify the article into one or more categories.

Now say, I have an invention that uses this concept but I now apply it to some other context, like wherein the input is an audio signal containing spoken words and I want to classify audio according to the same system of matching keywords.

Is my invention patentable considering noone has classified audio before?
 and also, am i infringing the above claims even though I am using it for a different type of input?

whoever owns the patent to the above claim is able to sue anyone and EVERYONE infringing this method of classification? right?

[JimIvey]

If I understand the question correctly, yes.

The situation you describe is called "blocking patents."  An earlier patent is very broad and claims basic, foundational technology.  A later patent claims an improvement on the basic, foundational technology.

First, it's important to note that a patent gives no rights to make, use, sell, import anything -- only the right to exclude others from doing so.

So, the owner of the later patent can't practice her invention without the permission of the owner of the earlier patent (or, more accurately, can be penalized if caught doing so).  And, the owner of the earlier patent can't use the improvement of the later patent without the permission of the owner of the later patent.

The typical solution is cross-licensing: each owner grants the other owner permission to use their respective technologies.

Regards.