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[Perviking]

Hi everyone

I'm having trouble with a patent, it reads as follows (my question is only for the purpose part):

PURPOSE: A baby monitor having a Bluetooth wireless multimedia function is provided to process video and audio data, captured by a camera and a microphone, using a digital signal processing method and to transmit and receive the video and audio data through Bluetooth communication in real time. CONSTITUTION: An audio CODEC(110) has a function to compress and decompress voice data. A video CODEC(120) has a function to compress and decompress video data. Video data are displayed on a TFT LCD monitor through a video accelerator(150). In a receiving part, a multimedia processor control part controls a monitor, a speaker, a microphone, a keypad, a memory, a Bluetooth transceiver part, MP3 software, and MPEG4 software. The multimedia processor control part stores data, transmitted from the receiving part, in the memory and downloads the stored data to a computer. The receiving part streams stable music or nursery rhymes for babies to a transmitting part in the pattern of an audio file.

What if you wish to make a baby monitor which only utilizes sound and not video, does that inflict with their patent. As they specifically mention that their product aims to capture both video and audio data. Or is the frame of the idea enough to protect them against all equipment designed to use Bluetooth as a baby monitor?

Sincerly
Alex Dagil

[JustAnotherExaminer]

Are you asking if your product would infringe?

It depends on the claims.

If their claimed baby monitor apparatus required video and audio components and yours only had audio, then no, you wouldn't be infringing.

[khazzah]

What if you wish to make a baby monitor which only utilizes sound and not video, does that inflict with their patent. 

Since you're talking about making a product and "inflicting" with a patent, I'm pretty sure you're talking about infringement.

As JustAnotherExaminer pointed out, to determine whether a product infringes, you compare the product with the claims of the patent. Not the "Purpose", "Constitution", "Summary" or "Abstract" of the patent.

Also, patents are country-specific. I've never seen a US patent that includes a "Constitution" section. Is the patent you're asking about a Japanese patent? If so, I doubt you'll get many answers on this forum, since I don't think we have many contributors who are familiar with Japanese patent law.

[JimIvey]

As JustAnotherExaminer pointed out, to determine whether a product infringes, you compare the product with the claims of the patent. Not the "Purpose", "Constitution", "Summary" or "Abstract" of the patent.

And, in case you're not sure what claims are, they're the numbered sentence fragments at the end.  They usually follow a single-paragraph sentence fragment such as "What is claimed is:", "We claim:", or "I claim:".

If any one of those numbered sentence fragments describes what you do, you infringe that claim -- more or less.

Regards.

[khazzah]

Yeah it's a chinese patent. But after a lot of research it seems like there's a lot of patents regarding various uses of this technology (in this case using a bluetooth device as a baby-monitor).

Chinese patents have no effect in the US. If you don't operate (e.g. manufacture, import, sell) your product in China, you won't be infringing that particular patent.

You should also be aware of the difference between a patent *publication* and an *issued patent*. A lot of searches will find both. But only an issued patent can be infringed. The owner of a published patent publication has no legal rights unless and until a patent issues.

[JV]

Any of these patents would have infringed on this if the chinese patent covers the use of bluetooth technology...


P.S. Thanks for the replies..

Patents do not "infringe" on other patents - only products infringe.  You can get a patent that would appear to cover the same product as another existing patent, if your patent has additional novel or non-obvious features.  A separate question is whether or not you can (legally) produce/sell what you patent.