What is a patent troll?

A patent troll is a derogatory term referring to as an individual or organization that acquires patents solely for the purpose of extracting royalties from companies that might be using their patents. Wikipedia has a good definition for Patent troll. Traditionally companies file patents to prevent other companies from using their inventions in their products or services for the life of the patent.

There is a general belief that the patent troll practice (usually executed by contingency-based attorneys) is simply stifling innovation in the industry. Some believe that patents are handed out too liberally due to the enormous backlogs at the patent office. The patent office is a profitable enterprise and the pressure to allow patents is certainly there. As a result the validity many patents are now being debated in court.

Should I post prior art for the ideas posted on this site?

Yes absolutely. We believe in the patent process “duty to disclose” applies here too. That will make your post incredibly useful because it helps establish the date of the original concept. 

Why not publish an Idea in the traditional way?

You can publish but it takes a long time. There are a lot of ideas that probably don’t warrant publishing at least not without a lot of time, research and money. There also may not be anywhere you can publish your invention. The most important thing is to get your invention posted and timestamped. Another useful feature is that you might get feedback on references that you didn’t know about. This will assist in determining if it’s worth taking the idea further or publishing it in the traditional way which you still can do. Wikinvents is ideal for collaboration on inventions on a large scale.

What if I post an invention on Wikinvents only to discover someone already filed a patent?

That certainly may happen. It would be a good idea to do a prior art (patents and patent application) search yourself at the US Patent Office (USPTO site or Google patents site) just to make sure there is nothing obvious first. You might find out someone applied for a patent from someone who responds to your idea. There are a number of things that could happen (all good):

1.             Someone could find prior art and post it here,

2.             If the patent hasn’t issued then the prior art could be sent to the patent office for consideration

3.             As a result of your effort the patent may not be allowed because of prior art found and posted here. This could happen for existing patent applications.

Other Issues with the Patent System

The patent system achieves its goal of protecting the investments that go into the creation of certain technologies. However, there are some problems that have come up in the last few years.

1. The patent office is overwhelmed with so many patent applications because companies are increasingly filing patents on just about everything. The reason is that they have to build a defensive patent portfolio just in case someone sues them. This costs companies millions to file and maintain many inventions that would not otherwise be patented purely for defensive reasons.
2. On the other side of the coin are “patent trolls” A patent troll is a derogatory term referring to as an individual or organization that acquires patents solely for the purpose of extracting royalties from companies that might be using their patents. Wikipedia has a good definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_troll. Traditionally companies file patents to prevent other companies from using their inventions in their products or services for the life of the patent. There is a general belief that the patent troll practice (usually executed by contingency lawyers) is simply stifling innovation in the industry.

Defensive Publishing

One way to prevent inventions from being patented is to publish them. In other words turn your inventions into prior art. This is often referred to as “Defensive Publishing”. Inventions that are published in print cannot be patented provided these ideas are publicly available. This site is intended for that purpose. There may be a lot of ideas that you will never want to commercialize but hope someone does just to improve every day life.

The downside of Defensive Publishing is that one can monitor Wikinvents and file patents that improve on the ideas presented here.

Wikinvents hopes people will join in the effort to openly improve inventions and not file patents on improvements for ideas presented here – that’s just slimy. At a certain critical mass there should be enough collaboration where the best ideas/method will quickly be disclosed (much quicker than a troll searching for something to improve upon).

If you are worried about it you can either wait until you’ve done enough research that you feel really comfortable in posting the invention.

Patents and Standardization

The issues around patents are particularly dangerous for standards bodies like the IETF, IEEE etc. Standards are collaborative efforts where many companies get together to ensure interoperability which is absolutely necessary for a particular technology to be successful. The Internet would not possible without interoperability.

Many standards bodies such as the IETF have adopted RAND (Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory) policy around intellectual property licensing. That in itself doesn’t completely address the patent issues. It just says that you will offer a reasonable license. 

Other standard bodies are more “closed” meaning the participants have to give up their IP for the standard. In that case the standard has a patent pool and try and deal with the IP issue up front. This happens often in consumer electronics standards. Manufactures give up their IP to the group in order to create interoperable products for the future. 

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) is a good example where members must give up their IP to participate and use the technology.  It's been wildly successful.  

What about patent holders that don’t participate in these standards? What typically happens is that if the standard becomes widely accepted, then the patent holder usually turns into a patent troll because there is so much money to be made after the fact. This is a concern for standards bodies but if successful then the members likely have enough prior art to protect them. 

Invalidating Patents

Let’s say you’ve got your patent and you start a company called “Trolls Are Us” with the intent of suing companies for patent infringement. (This is happening at an increasing alarming rate). If the patents truly apply then the company being sued can either negotiate a settlement or try to invalidate the patent. The only realistic way of invalidating the patent would be to find some prior art that might apply, typically in the form of some other patent filed in the past or an open publication like Wikinvents.  Yes Wikinvents is a collective of prior art. 

Prior Art

When you file a patent (assuming you know how to do that), the patent examiners search for relevant prior art, other patents or public documents where your invention may have been disclosed in the past. This would prevent the patent from being granted. You can imagine that this is a very very difficult job for patent examiners. 

The patent applicant has a duty to disclose any relevant art “material to patentability”. And if you fail to disclose this information then your patent may be found invalid and unenforceable. In practice this rarely happens because to do a complete search of the prior art is almost impossible. The best one could hope for is a patent search plus pertinent technical journals. Equally relevant is any public information including product literature, brochures, trade publications, press releases and of course anything posted on the Internet.

Wikinvents expects that you have reviewed the prior art and have followed the contribution guidelines and have posted any relevant prior art found in the public domain.

Wikinvents VS the Patent System

The US patent system was created in 1970 under President George Washington. A patent grants the inventor exclusive rights on the invention for a fixed time period (20 years in North America). The patent owner retains the right to exclude others from making, selling, using or importing the invention. The invention is disclosed to the public.

The often stated economic rationale for filing a patent is to protect the investment required that went into creating the technology in the first place. For example the pharmaceutical industry spends billions in R&D and the patents offer the period of exclusivity to protect their investment. The patent is disclosed publicly and others can use the patent either by licensing it or waiting for the patent to expire. Patents can be very expensive to file and maintain and they become even more expensive over time.

Other companies take a different strategy. The invention is a trade secret. Trade secrets are basically information not generally known and as long as you don’t tell anyone, the information will remain that way. Many companies rely on secrets (eg the formula to Coca Cola).

The problem with the trade secret is that someone else can independently re-discover the idea (lawfully) and patent it. In fact anyone (i.e. your competitor) can legally do that by reverse engineering your product. If they successfully obtain a patent then they could prevent you (the creator of the idea) from using it! So there are risks to keeping a secret. If you suspect that the idea will eventually be discovered then you should probably file a patent or if you don’t want to see a patent then publish it on Wikinvents!

Wikinvents is a free open collective of original inventions that can be used by anyone. Once your idea is published and timestamped, it cannot be patented by anyone else. The motivations include:

1. You have original ideas that you will never want to commercialize but hope someone will just to improve every day life.
2. Some of the best ideas come from end users. End users have a unique perspective, often surpassing that of the original developers, as to product improvements or new directions.
3. Work on inventions that benefit everyone. Massive collaboration on ideas and inventions (two (millions of) heads better than one
4. Prevent others from patenting your invention
5. Post interesting ideas problems that should be worked on

Contributing to Wikinvents

In order for an invention to qualify for a patent it must be novel, non-obvious and useful. You should do the research and truly believe the idea is novel, non-obvious and useful (i.e. an original invention) before posting. The Wikinvents examiners (being the general public) will be able to judge the ideas. This is no different from a well written & referenced article for Wikipedia.

You should not render your opinion on existing inventions or patent claims. Please be factual, it will only improve the quality of the invention. Finally, inventions posted on Wikinvents are living creations that can be continually improved.

I recommend you use the follow format for your invention. (See the examples)

• Title - the title of your invention
• Abstract – a brief summary of the invention
• Background of the invention – describe the problem in detail
• Summary of the invention – describe how you solve the problem (try to include illustrations)
•  Description of the method – describe in point form the steps
• Summary – see if you can describe in point form the key ideas (like a conclusion)
• References - list the references in the literature that apply to your invention, including existing patents

You should perform a basic patent search to see if the idea has been patented or is patent pending. Google Patents has done an amazing job on patent search. You can also do this at the US Patent and Trademark Office. Don't forget to search both issued patents and patent applications. Its important to note that patent applications aren't made public until 18 moths after its filing date. So you may not find anything in this 18 month gap even if someone filed a patent.

Invention: Wireless Body Sensing

A Philips patent application was recently made public on the Newscientist Invention Blog. The application describes wireless body sensing where patients have to be monitored. A number of wireless sensors are attached to the body and can be remotely monitored at some computer. The advantage being the patient is monitored without the being attached by wires. This is especially important for long term monitoring.

The patent application can be found here.

The priority date is Feb 24, 2006. Note claim 1, the most important claim says

"1. A communication device adapted for attachment to the body of a wearer so as to form part of a body area network ("BAN") comprising a body coupled communication ("BCC") device, and a short-range radio device, the device including means for detecting other similar communication devices on the wearer using BCC, and means for establishing a wireless network with other such devices using their short range radios."

Now lets go to Harvard University and look at the CodeBlue project (Wireless Sensor Networks for Medical Care). The earliest publication was October 28, 2003. If we look at the document "Sensor Networks for Medical Care" posted on the web site, published April 2005, claim 1 in the application is fully described. Not only described but a prototype was built. Directly from the paper:

"We have experimentally validated the prototype on our 30-node sensor network testbed, demonstrating its scalability and robustness as the number of simultaneous queries, data rates, and transmitting sensors are varied. We also study the effect of node mobility, fairness across multiple simultaneous paths, and patterns of packet loss, confirming the system’s ability to maintain stable routes despite variations in node location and data rate."

I did not review all the papers on the CodeBlue project but its pretty clear from reading one paper, claim 1 is invalid. Since they built and tested exactly claim 1.

Claim 2 of the patent says

"A communication device according to claim 1 in which the short-range radio device comprises a Bluetooth, Wifi or Zigbee device."

The paper sited early from the CodeBlue project discloses all three network types.

Given the CodeBlue prior art, this patent application should not be allowed.

Invention: "Spinning Bike Cooling"

Abstract

This invention adds a cooling system to the spinning bike. The benefit being to cool the rider as he/she rides on the stationary spinning bike.

Background of the invention

The trouble with all indoor cycling is that the rider generates a tremendous amount of heat, unlike riding in the outdoors where the wind cools the rider. The common solution is to place a fan in front of the indoor rider. In a spinning class where there are many riders the external fans provide too much wind for a few riders and not enough for others. The other option is to open a window or door but that’s not optimal either.

Summary of the invention

The invention incorporates cooling blades onto the fly wheel to keep the rider cooled naturally during the ride. Each rider has a simple cooling system.

Description of the method

1. Add a fan blade assembly to the spin bike fly wheel.
2. Modify the fly-wheel design to incorporate fan blade cooling.

Summary

This invention describes the following concepts:

1. Modifying the spin bike fly wheel to include cooling fans that cool the rider while cycling.

Invention: “Combining Cross Country Ski Wax and Cork”

Abstract

This invention merges traditional cross country skiing wax and with cork that is used to evenly distribute the wax in the kick area. The prime benefit being to prevent waxes (of different types) from mixing on the ski. In addition it eliminates one component (the cork) from what the skier has to carry on the trail.

Background of the invention

Most cross country skis require a kick wax that closely matches the temperature of the snow. The kick wax is applied manually just before heading out on the trail. The kick wax is corked in using a separate cork. Corking is intended to smooth out the freshly applied wax in the kick area of the ski. If conditions become slippery during your ski, then the wax can be reapplied and corked in again. Kick wax comes in A typical skier would have at least 5 different temperature waxes. The pros carry more than 10 different waxes. Matching the wax to the snow can mean the difference between winning and losing a race.

The problem using a single cork is that you end up mixing the wax on the ski over repeated uses of the cork. For example, one day may be warm (softer wax), the next day may be cold (harder wax). On the second day you will end up applying some of the softer wax left on the cork which would slow you down on the trail. If the skier gets Klister on the cork (for very warm days), it becomes extremely difficult to clean off the cork.

Another problem is that you have to carry the cork in addition to the wax just in case you need to re-apply. Cross country skiers want to minimize what they carry.

The leading manufactures of cross country ski wax including Toko,Vauhti,Red Creek and Ski*go always sell the kick wax separately from the cork. In addition the cork has to be big so the user can grip the cork firmly during the corking process.

Summary of the invention


This invention introduces a simple solution to the problem. Glue a thin layer of cork onto the bottom of the kick wax tube (like an eraser on a pencil). This would prevent mixing the wax on the ski and having to carry a separate cork while skiing. In addition one could mount different types cork material onto the bottom of the kick wax tube that is specifically suited to the wax type. A synthetic cork is typically used on warmer waxes such as Klister where as natural cork is used on cold temperature waxes.

With the cork attached to the wax container, the whole unit becomes a handle for the application. This minimizes the amount of cork required. The cork can be very thin for this application.

Description of the method

1. Glue a thin slice of cork to the top or bottom of the kick wax tube.
2. Glue different types of corks onto different types of kick wax tubes to apply different waxes better.
3. Glue different types of cork shapes onto the kick wax tube for better erganomics.

Summary

This invention specifically describes the following concepts:

Attaching a cork layer to the cross country kick wax container in any fasion.

1. Attaching different types of cork material for different wax types.
2. Shaping the combined container and cork to optimize the user application of wax and subsequent corking.
3. Optimizing the amount of cork used for the application.
4. A fresh cork is provided with every kick wax in the skiers bag.
5. Ski wax is never mixed.

References

▪                Skiwax.ca

Why Contribute to Wikinvents?

The goal is for Wikinvents will be to become a repository of inventions that are freely usable by anyone. The act of posting an invention and [time stamping] it on this site creates a filing date, or a date that your invention was posted and open for public scrutiny and use. At that date the invention is considered prior art meaning that this invention cannot be patented by anyone. This is sometimes referred to as Defensive Publishing. Inventions that are published in print cannot be patented provided these ideas are publicly available. This site is intended for that purpose.

There may be a lot of ideas that you will never want to commercialize but hope someone does just to improve every day life. Some of the best ideas come from the users of technology. End users have a unique perspective, often surpassing that of the original developers, as to product improvements or new directions. The main goals are:

1. Work on inventions that benefit everyone. Massive collaboration on ideas and inventions (two (millions of) heads better than one)
2. Prevent others from patenting your invention
3. Post cool inventions found elsewhere (add a reference, give credit)
4. Build a prior art database
5.  Anyone can use these inventions but please give credit and reference Wikinvents.com, Inventor and Invention in your documentation
6. Educate the public on intellectual property that seems to be hampering many industries
7. Post problems that should be worked on
8. Offload the patent office. The U.S. patent office is overwhelmed with more than 300,000 new patent applications per year. Patents now take a few years to issue (reference).

Motivation for Wikinvents

The idea for Wikinvents was developed as an idea by meyself (Tony Rosati in 2006 on a hiking trip). As a technology person heavily involved in patents during the day and playing with Wikipedia at night, I thought that some of the problems in the patent world could be solved by a collaborative effort using a Wiki. However, Wiki's require a lot of maintenance so I decided to start blogging... 

The patent system is a closed system where inventors come up with the ideas, write disclosures that are handed over to a patent agent who cleverly crafts a patent application that is submitted to the patent office. After about three years in the patent office, the patent issues. In that time frame the patent could be rejected of due to prior art (something published prior to the filing date).

The patent process is a closed system in the sense that the inventors do not openly discuss their invention with anyone; the patent agent is the sole person who crafts the patent application including the teachings and patent claims and the applications are examined by a very small group of individuals who must master the field of the invention, research the world body of prior art and make a determination to allow the patent. This places enormous responsibility on very few individuals to grand a 20 year monopoly on an invention that possibly might not be valid. The validity of patents is being challenged every day in courts across the country. There are likely many patents out there that should have never been issued in the first place.

Wikinvents is an effort to open the inventing process in a collaborative but structured way using. Wikinvents is not trying to replace the Patent Office. You could consider Wikinvents as a way of off-loading the patent system where inventors are only interested in seeing inventions commercialized, not monopolized. In once sense Wikinvents can serve as The Long Tail of inventions.