Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucsd!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!uunet!ncrlnk!ncr-mpd!Mike.McManus From: Mike.McManus@FtCollins.NCR.com (Mike McManus) Newsgroups: sci.electronics Subject: Re: Patents, How to get them?:-) Message-ID: Date: 10 Aug 90 08:00:28 GMT References: <297@alix.UUCP> <7620@amelia.nas.nasa.gov> <1990Aug2.122811.29219@mlb.semi.harris.com> <12134@hydra.gatech.EDU> <1527.26b95e5d@dcs.simpact.com> Sender: uucp@ncr-mpd.FtCollins Followup-To: sci.electronics Distribution: usa Organization: NCR Microelectronic Products, Ft. Collins, CO Lines: 50 In-reply-to: jeh@dcs.simpact.com's message of 3 Aug 90 18:22:05 GMT In article <1527.26b95e5d@dcs.simpact.com> jeh@dcs.simpact.com writes: > In article <12134@hydra.gatech.EDU>, ce1zzes@prism.gatech.EDU (Eric Sheppard) writes: > > With the talk of the mega-lawsuits nowadays, having a successful patent > > seems impossible unless you have tons of money and an army of weasels in > > pin-striped suits to defend it. > > This is pretty much the opinion of Don Lancaster (of _TTL Cookbook_, etc., > fame). He says that not one patent in ten will survive an aggressive search > for prior art; that in a quick-moving field like electronics or computers, > the patent process is so slow compared to the rate of progress in the field > that by the time a patent is granted the state of the art will have passed > it by; that most big corporations will gladly pay their legal department > $100K to bust your patent before they'll pay you $10K in royalties; that, > all things considered, not one patent in ten will ever net any profits for > its holder or assignees. The company I work for is large enough that my division has it's own office of "pin stripes" to take care of patent filing, etc. The disclosure gets you a cash award, as does filing and final patent award, so even if your application doesn't make it, you still get something along the way. Of course, the company holds the actual patent, but that's no big deal. As was pointed out, the possiblity of getting any significant royalties from a patent in the electronics field these days is slim, though it may occasionally happen (usually in the form of licensing aggreements). So why go to the expense of searching and filing a patent? For large companies, the name of the game is to build your portfolio. Then my company can go to a competitor (say, IBM, for example) and say, "We've got a portfolio of 1200 patents. We'll swap license aggreements on all of them for your portfolio." It becomes a leverage tool, so that license agreements don't cost boo-koo bucks. Chances are, there are one or two good, licenseable products in the whole lot, as well as a few others that may help avoid possible infringement down the road (or at least avoid the expense of tracking such issues down). And of course, it looks good on the company stat sheet to say, "We filed for 30 patents this year...". But if I were an individual, I would have to think long and hard about filing a patent. If you want to do it just to have the patent, I think that's great, but if you plan to make money off it, I wouldn't hold my breath. -- Disclaimer: All spelling and/or grammar in this document are guaranteed to be correct; any exseptions is the is wurk uv intter-net deemuns,. Mike McManus Mike.McManus@FtCollins.NCR.COM, or NCR Microelectronics ncr-mpd!mikemc@ncr-sd.sandiego.ncr.com, or 2001 Danfield Ct. uunet!ncrlnk!ncr-mpd!garage!mikemc Ft. Collins, Colorado (303) 223-5100 Ext. 378