Patent Question : application of a device qualifies?

[hltc]

Note: did some forum searches to find the right one, didnt seem to be anything specific.

Looking for opinions. Lets not argue about costs, why do it, etc. Companies get patents for the IP, and so that even if they don't sue someone else over the violation, it keeps them from being sued by someone who does get the idea patented.

So we have an application, and now I've found an off the shelf ,albeit a very specialized, IC that can improve the general nature of the design. It does a specific function, that could also be done discretely or by a micro controller or DSP.

The product is targeted toward a specific user group, because if you look at it overall, it could be used in a wider venue, but thats not what the company targets.

So, from a patent perspective, I'm thinking that if they want to pursue it, its the specific function, not the fact it can use the special IC. But by generating the patent, it could preclude the competition from doing the same thing (in theory) by any method..special IC, DSP or discrete.

Just looking for comments and thought's before I approach the owner.

 

[MacGyverS2000]

Design patents (are supposed to) protect unique and non-obvious methods of accomplishing a goal. If you are able to create, for example, a more simple analog circuit that would accomplish the same thing as a more complicated analog IC, then yes, you have a basis for a patent application. If the IC is digital in nature, you would have a difficult time explaining how a general purpose processor would be a novel/unique way of accomplishing the same goal as it could be easily argued the processor takes the same basic steps, just at the insistence of microcode.

If you use that IC in a non-obvious way (say, using an LCD controller to run a sprinkler system), then you have a basis for a patent. Targeted user group is irrelevant unless, again, the new use is non-obvious... using Segways as school child transportation is a given, but using the same base for keeping a non-mounted/hand-carried satellite dish pointed correctly during a wind storm may qualify (you heard it here first, so it's now public domain, no patents allowed ;-) ).

If I understand your question correctly, you are attempting to patent a basic idea, not necessarily the specific method with which it is accomplished. Typically those patents are more difficult to enforce as they are so generic. Specific patents are easy to break because all it takes is someone finding a different method of accomplishing only one of the main goals listed in the patent. You would simply write the patent in such a manner as to include all of the methods one skilled in the proper arts might use (i.e., ICs, processors), making sure to point out the "method" being patented is not the use of the IC or a processor, but the "algorithm" that it is implementing.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[IRstuff]

It's a crap shoot, basically. Two putative rules:
> Non-obviousness
> Improvement over the prior art

see:

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/doc/general/index.html#whatpat

But, it ultimately depends on your actual patent examiner, some are more thorough than others.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[hltc]

Thanks for the comments. In the end, it will be up to the owner to decide if they want to do this, and then the patent attorney to determine if it is really novel and new. Its not so much the patent covering in general, its the unique method added to this particular device to resolve a problem. I'm doing searches in "fresh patents" to see if anyone in the past few years has already done it.

 

[IRstuff]

Novelty is one thing, but if there is an existing solution, then it must be an improvement over the existing solution(s) to be patentable.

Much of that is dependent on the actual writeup of the application, if there's a sufficiently compelling argument toward the improvement over the prior art, which is essentially a marketing blurb, with technical backing.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[hltc]

right...and the way I see this design, its an improvement on existing methods.

Think of it this way. You have a drink and a straw, and everyone that makes straws just makes...straws. However, you find a micropump that allows someone thats disabled...lets say no muscle control in the mouth that allows them to suck. You add the pump, and now they can drink.

They are still drinking thru the straw, just the nature of how the "stuff" is delivered to the user is new and different. Its not that pumps haven't been used before, and even to this application perhaps, but the fact that its directed to a specific segment of the population (the disabled)and improves the delivery method, makes it unique, no?

Oh...that was an example, but its in the public domain now

 

[hltc]

Just had another thought...

So what if this pump, is the easiest way to do it. Sure you could do it differently and maybe get the same results, but this is the sure fire way, and the pump is patented, so that if anyone else wanted to do it the same way...they would have to use this pump. Can you patent a product/design based on using a specific commercially available device, thus preventing anyone else from doing the same thing? I'm thinking thats pretty gray... and probably couldn't be patented using that as one of its basis.

 

[IRstuff]

That would depend on the obviousness of using that part in your application. As an example, while transistors were invented more than 50 years ago, you could still get a new patent on a product that uses transistors in a non-obvious way.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[MacGyverS2000]

As IR points out, it's not as gray as you think. Your application would have to use the pump in a non-obvious way. To answer your specific question, though, you can NOT patent a product based upon a specific device (e.g., General Electric), just the device's action (e.g., pumping), and only in a specific way... if someone creates a new way to create the pumping action, your patent is moot.

Prime example? Say you want to get fluids from point A to point B, so you use an impeller pump. But what if that fluid is bodily in nature and you can't have it mix with greases and the like? Someone comes along and creates a peristaltic pump, making all of the prior inventions outdated.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[IRstuff]

Dan's example is quite germane. The skill of the patent writer comes in here. A REALLY good patent would specify the "transport means" is such a fashion, either singly or in series, to cover all possible in-line pumps, for example. In that case, only someone with a non-in-line pump or a wormhole would be not covered by the patent.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[hltc]

Gotcha. I do appreciate all the comments. I did find one patent application that addresses much of what we are trying to do, but in a fashion that isn't identical..ie...we aren't violating the patent, yet our application really might not warrant a patent. However the comments made do clear up the initial questions.

Thanks everyone