Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[warrendekker]

Does it  ever happen, after a lone inventor files a patent, and information about the invention becomes public (through patent application publication or otherwise), that a less-than-ethical company (whose business is threatened by the invention) will challenge the patent, with "documentation" that they had conceived of the patent first?  Or, are the standards for documentation so high, and the penalties for falsification of documentation so high, that no company would dare go down this path?  

Alternatively, do companies with deep pockets, routinely challenge the patents of a financially-weak lone inventor, simply to so deplete the financial resources of the inventor, to hamper his/her ability to commercialize the invention?  Or, again, is this pretty rare?


Thanks,

Warren

[Wiscagent]

There are several means to challenge a granted US patent or a patent application.  The cost (to the challenger) can range from minimal to hundreds of thousands of dollars.  

At the low end of the range are “protests” and “third party submissions” regarding patent applications.  The direct cost to the protester for either of these procedures is a few dollars in office fees and probably not more than a couple of days of legal work.

At the high end of the cost range is litigation to challenge the validity or enforcability of a patent in court.

Two options in the middle cost range are interferences and re-examinations.  In some situations the challenger can file a patent application claiming the same matter as the already existing patent or application, hoping to invoke an interference proceeding.  Also a challenger can request a reexamination, if they can convince the USPTO that they have prior art that would raise serious questions.

In addition to the cost to the challenger, there are legal risks to each of these approaches.

Warren asked “... do companies with deep pockets, routinely challenge the patents of a financially-weak lone inventor, simply to so deplete the financial resources of the inventor, to hamper his/her ability to commercialize the invention?  Or, again, is this pretty rare?”

I believe that this approach is rare.  Companies with deep pockets are typically far more concerned about other companies with deep pockets than with financially-weak lone inventors.  Management typically sees going after the “little guy” as an unwanted distraction.


Richard Tanzer

[JSonnabend]

I'm not sure of the thrust of your post, but challenges to patent validity are far from uncommon, especially in defense to charges of infringement.  What I'm not following is the "less-than-ethical" part.  Are you suggesting that all companies that challenge patents with "documentation" of prior conception/invention are unethical?  

Unethical companies do unethical things, and hoepfully perjury laws deter them and rules of evidence and civil procedure help to weed them out regardless.  That doesn't mean that all (or even most) challenges of the type you describe are wrongful or somehow "unethical".

- Jeff

[clarklawyer]

I think "documentation" was meant to imply fabricated evidence.

[warrendekker]

The challenges you mention, Jeff, "interferences and re-examinations", if this requires hundreds of thousands of dollars of legal expenses on the part of the company challenging a lone inventor's patent....how much money does it require on the part of the lone inventor?   Does he sit back and let the company and USPTO go at it, or does he need to mount a legal defense of his patent as part of this process?  Could such challenges be used, by a less-than-ethical company, to at least extract a pound of financial flesh, from the inventor?  Or, are such things rare? (Obviously, an ethical company would realize that it got scooped, and try to make a friend out of the lone inventor).

I guess what I am getting at, is a lone inventor needs to consider all possible costs in deciding whether something is worth his time and money to patent.  One needs to consider the potential income of the patent versus the basic costs of getting the patent, of course.  All good patent attorneys and all patenting books explain this.  More difficult to estimate, but important to consider, is the potential income of the patent versus the costs of defending against possible infringement.  I was just wondering if there is a third (perhaps imponderable) factor for the lone inventor in this calculation...if the legal costs of defending against challenges, inferences, and re-examination challenges, also needs to be considered in the potential cost of obtaining a patent.  


Warren

[clarklawyer]

My personal opinion is that many independent inventors worry incessantly and generally unreasonably that the big  boys are going to steal their inventions.   I would not suggest that such things never happen, but I would suggest that there are far more important and prevalent obstacles to success.

[Wiscagent]

I mentioned “interferences and re-examinations,” not Jeff.

The “hundreds of thousands of dollars” referred to itigation, the most expensive method of challenging a patent.

As Isaac and I wrote, the kind of agressive activity by companies with deep pockets against the little guy is rare.  It generally does not make sense for a large corporation to invest the time, money, effort, and potential for adverse publicity to harm an inventor who is (a) unlikely to ever be a problem, and (b) in most cases could be defeated or bought off if their patent did become an issue.


Richard

[warrendekker]

My personal opinion is that many independent inventors worry incessantly and generally unreasonably that the big  boys are going to steal their inventions.

Motto of the lone inventor, "You'd be paranoid, too, if everybody was out to get you..."

Thanks for all of your kind replies.  


Warren

[Wiscagent]

A bigger issue for most lone inventors is they develop the greatest thing since bottled beer and nobody cares enough to buy the item.