Yoga related Patents-State of Art Search
Decoding Allergan-Mohawk Deal in Hindi.
पेटेंट कानून का विचित्र कोण ? Decoding Allergan-Mohawk Deal in Hindi.
आईपीआर अर्थात inter partes review की मार से अमेरिकी पेटेंटों को प्रतिरक्षित करने में मदद करने का एक अनोखा तरीका हाल ही में उभर कर आया है – ” संप्रभु प्रतिरक्षा द्वारा बचाव ” जिसे अंग्रेजी में “Sovereign Immunity Defense” कहते हैं ।
अमेरिका में सन २०१३ में अमेरिका अविष्कार अधिनियम यानि America Invents Act लागु किया गया था , जब से पेटेंट को अमान्य करने का एक लोकप्रिय तरीका इंटर पार्ट्स रिव्यू (आईपीआर) की कार्यवाही में चुनौती देना बन चुका है । IPR कार्यवाही एक यूएसपीटीओ (USPTO) (फेडरल) पेटेंट ट्रायल और अपील बोर्ड (PTAB) की कार्यवाही है जहां पेटेंट को चुनौती देने वाला पेटेंट की मौलिकता को लेकर सवाल उठा सकता है |
संप्रभु प्रतिरक्षा का कानून अमेरिकी संविधान के ग्यारहवें संशोधन में जोड़ा गया था जिसके अनुसार अमेरिकी संयुक्त राज्य की न्यायिक शक्ति का दुरउपयोग किसी दुसरे राज्य का नागरिक अमेरिका के किसी राज्य को चुनौती देने के लिए नहीं कर सकता |
पृष्ठभूमि : मैरीलैंड विश्वविध्यालय (UMD) के स्वामित्व में कार्डियक वाल्वों की मरम्मत की एक विधि को लेकर पेटेंट (Patent No. US7635386) था । मई 2017 में, यूएमडी ने सफलतापूर्वक आईपीआर की चुनौती को मात देते हुए यह तर्क दिया कि यूएमडी, मैरीलैंड राज्य का एक हिस्सा है , इसलिए 11वे संशोधन (संप्रभु प्रतिरक्षा) के तहत पीटीएबी और आईपीआर उस पर कोई भी कार्यवाही नहीं कर सकते |
निश्चित रूप से यूएमडी विभिन्न न्यायिक मामलो का उल्लेख कर अपनी दलीले देने में सफल रहा । पीटीएबी ने सहमत होते हुए यूएमडी को दी जाने वाली चुनौतियों को खारिज कर दिया।
Allergan PLC (जो एक बहुराष्ट्रीय फार्मास्युटिकल कंपनी है ) ने अपने पेटेंट की रक्षा के लिए इस अवधारणा को सीमा तक पहुंचाने का फैसला किया । Allergan ने शुष्क आंखों के उपचार में काम आने वाली दवा, रेस्टैसिस (Restasis) के पेटेंट्स को सेंट रेगिंस मोहौक जनजाति (जो न्यूयॉर्क में स्थित अमेरिकी मूल नागरिको की एक जनजाति है ) को स्थानांतरित किया जिसका अग्रीम मूल्य $13.75 मिलियन डॉलर दिया गया और फिर तुरंत पेटेंट लाइसेंस वापिस प्राप्त कर लिया गया । सितंबर 2017 में Allergan ने तर्क दिया कि चूंकि यह जनजाति भी एक संप्रभुत्व सरकार है, इसलिए “जनजाति” के पेटेंट भी अमेरिकी संप्रभु प्रतिरक्षा कानून के अनुसार आईपीआर (IPR) कि चुनौतियों से पूर्ण रूप से संरक्षित हैं |
आज सेंट रिजिस मोहौक जनजाति का मुख्यालय, जो कि कनाडाई सीमा से कुछ मिनट की दूरी पर राजमार्ग की बंजर पट्टी पर स्थित है, साल में सबसे विवादास्पद पेटेंट विवादों में से एक के लिए एक एवं बौद्धिक संपदा में एक बेजान नई रणनीति के लिए परीक्षण का एक संभावित मैदान बन चुका है । शायद ही कभी पहले किसी ने इस कोण के बारे में सोचा हो । Allergan के इस समझौते के व्यापक प्रभाव होंगे उन कंपनियों के बीच जहां बौद्धिक संपदा पर पेटेंट प्राप्त करने की होड़ मची हुई है | निश्चित रूप से जनजाति अपने कैसीनो व्यवसाय का परिपूरक पाकर बहुत खुश है |
संप्रभुता के संदर्भ में, जनजातियों की कानूनी स्थिति जो “घरेलू आश्रित राष्ट्रों” की है , बहुत ही जटिल प्रतीत होती है | क्या Allergan ने “पेटेंट लॉन्डरिंग” का एक नया रूप खोज निकाला है? या पेटेंट कानून ने सिर्फ एक विचित्र मोड़ लिया है ?
लेखक : श्री अर्पित अग्रवाल Siddhast IP Innovation में कार्रयत हैं और बौद्धिक सम्पदा के अधिकार के विषय पर शोध एवं प्रकाशन का कार्य करते हैं | श्री अग्रवाल कि रुचि का विषय नए पेटेंट कानून एवं अंतर्राष्ट्रीय पटल पर पेटेंट कानूनों का सद-उपयोग एवं दुर-उपयोग है |
अस्वीकरण : इस लेख में व्यक्त विचार और राय लेखक के हैं और यह कंपनी की आधिकारिक नीति या स्थिति को नहीं दर्शाते हैं । इस लेख में किए गए विश्लेषण केवल उदाहरण हैं |
How to Register IPR in India
According to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), intellectual belongings refers to creations of thoughts: innovations; literary and creative works; and symbols, names and pictures used in commerce. It can be bifurcated into two categories :
1. Industrial assets which incorporates patents for innovations, commercial designs, logos, and geographical indications.
2. Copyrights which covers literary works (e.g. novels, poems and many others.), films, music and/or every other creative work.
As an inventor, proprietor or writer of such intellectual assets you have got rights, similar to in case of every other physical property. It prevents every person or entity to apply it without your permission in conjunction with giving due credit or even financial compensation.
To legally put in force such rights, you need to register your invention with the office of controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks under Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India.
File in your application as quickly as possible, as first-to-report rule is of great importance for registration of intellectual property. If two or more applications are identical or comparable only the the foremost application will be given importance for registration.
Patent implies a brand new product or procedure capable of industrial application. The product or procedure need to be a new invention that has not been used earlier than within the public domain. Time period for registered patents in India is 20 years.
Application for registration has to be filed inside the patents office of applicable territorial jurisdiction via the inventor either by self or through assigned legal representative. An important thing to understand is that those rights are territorial in nature and do no extend beyond the jurisdiction for which it is granted. If you want to reserve the IPR in different international boundries, then either you can file the patent application separately in countries of your preference or you can file Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application simultaneously with application in Form-1.
In addition to Form 1 you need to fill Form 2 in which you need to mention the specification of your invention in detail and Form 3 and Form 5 in which you need to mention the details of any foreign filings for the same and a bonafide affirming that the product/process is your invention respectively.
Industrial Design
In accordance to WIPO, an industrial design refers to the ornamental or aesthetic aspects of an article. A design may comprise of 3-D features, such as the shape or surface of an article, or 2-D features such as patterns, lines or color. Industrial designs are applied to wide variety of industrial products containing distinctive features and handicraft items.
There is a separate Design Wing in the patent office under Government of India which oversees the registration process. The process is now online.You need to create an account,fill in the application, digitally sign the form (Form 5 and 44 ) and make the payment.
After the thorough examination, the copyright is granted, and the details of the same are entered into Register of Designs , maintained in the Patent Office. It contains parameters such as Name and address of the Proprieter , Design number, class number , date of filing, etc.
Any person can inspect the register after payment of prescribed fees.
Trademarks
A Trademark mark is a recognizable sign, design, or expression which identifies products or services belongs to or provided by certain individual or some legal entity.
A trademark identifies the brand owner of a particular product or service. Trademarks can also be licensed to others in order to earn revenue or brand proliferation. The unauthorized usage of trademarks by producing and trading counterfeit consumer goods is known as brand piracy. Regulation of Trademarks in India is governed under Trademarks Act, 1999. This Act is in compliance with World Trade Organization recommendations and Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement.
You can obtain Trademark from Registrar of Trademark under the Office of Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks ,Government of India.The validity of Trademark is 10 years and you can again renew that for another 10 years.The Process of registration is now online.
To register follow the link ,create an account,fill in the application ,digitally sign the Form TM-1 and make the payment.
Like registration of Industrial Design, Trademark registration is also limited to certain territorial boundries. The Application is inspected for the uniqueness of the relevant mark ,whether is it enough to distinguish and differentiate an applicant’s good or service and whether it is prohibited for registration under any other law or is identical or similar to any existing marks. On successful grant ,the trademark is included in the Register of Trademark.
In case somebody wants to contest the grant of trademark, same should be intimated to the Office within 4 months from the date of publication in the official gazette.
Some important links:
(1)For e-Filling Patent,Design,GI etc.
(2)For Form and Fees.
Who claims the software, I simply paid to have developed? Who Owns What?
A typical copyright misinterpretation is that if a enterprise pays to have software built up, the software is a work made for hire and is naturally owned by an enterprise. In any case, that is not always true.
Hinging on this confusion can bring about a enterprise not owning software it paid to have developed.
The general rule is that the creator of a copyrightable work is naturally its proprietor. One essential exemption happens if software is created by an employee. In this case, the enterprise — and not the employee — will claim the copyright. Notwithstanding, if the work is developed by a contractor, proprietorship consequently vests in the hands of the same and not the enterprise that paid to have it developed.
For what reason should a enterprise think about copyright possession? The copyright proprietor has boundless opportunity to market and change the work and to keep others from utilizing it. Truant ownership, leads to constrained rights to utilize the product by the enterprise, that was developed for it.
On the off chance if there is no drafted covenant, the copyright remains with the contractor, and the enterprise gets a nonexclusive license to utilize the product according to the understanding of the parties.
There are two critical words here. First, the enterprise entitlement to use the product is nonexclusive, which implies that the contractor can resell the software without paying anything to the enterprise.
Second, the product must be utilized by the enterprise in the way the parties concurred it would be used when the product was developed. For instance, if the product were developed for the interior utilization of the enterprise, pitching it to others would be outside of the extent of the license.
So what are a few things a enterprise ought to consider while hiring a software developer?
Intellectual Property Rights in the software by default belongs to the contractor. On the off chance if the IPR transfer agreement/development agreement do not mention the copyright proprietorship then the IPR belongs to contractor.
Jot down all things in an agreement. Copyrights must be exchanged by particular dialect in a document. Just a normal handshake deal or a verbal comprehension won’t transfer the copyright. Web based software development agreement should incorporate arrangements identified with possession.
Talk about possession right on time in the arrangement procedure. That may influence the cost of the task since the designer might plan to reuse all or part of that product in another venture.
Incorporate confidentiality provisions in the agreement. Custom developed software can contain privileged insights of an enterprise. Negotiate to keep those techniques secret and out of the hands of business competitors after the venture is done.
On the off chance that proprietorship can’t be negotiated, consider acquiring the privilege to utilize the product like a proprietor. Sometimes possession can’t be gotten on the grounds that the product incorporates routines that the contractor reuses in each task. Exchanging possession would mean the contractor would never again have the capacity to utilize those routines itself. Rather, consider consulting for the privilege to utilize and alter the product without constraint.
Ownership of the contractor developed software is crucial and often ignored aspect of the software development/innovator patent agreement. Being aware of the principles of copyright possession can spare the enterprise from numerous conceivable issues that may get apparent long after the product is delivered.
Also see : http://siddhast.com/innovators-patent-agreement
Written By : Arpit Agarwal
One-Click Purchase is no more a monopoly in World
Amazon looses its exclusive hold on one of the most contentious patents of the internet age. A simple non-obvious invention which even a novice programmer can reproduce, that paybacks a company a hefty amount of money is no more the golden egg laying hen for the ecommerce company. Of course the idea is not big indeed, but to be a first in applying patent sets amazon rule the ecommerce market. Thanks to the Indian Patent Act, Section 3, 1970 ,which denies the grant of patent on mathematical or business method or a computer programe per se or algorithms. A victory won by expedient paperwork and not by a really appreciable groundbreaking work is now giving the company’s rival a breath of freedom.
In interview with Mr. Roshan , COO of Siddhast IP Innovation “The companies now have to focus on giving customer , a satisfactory services rather than winning its competitors by such stupid and scrupulous means of just protecting a simple button.” exclaimed IPR expert.
one click patent US5960411 Method and system for placing a purchase order at website
one click patent US5960411 i.e Method and system for placing a purchase order at website
Contents
Patent
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued US 5960411 for this technique to Amazon.com in September 1999. Amazon.com also owns the “1-Click” trademark.
On May 12, 2006, the USPTO ordered a reexamination[2] of the “One-Click” patent, based on a request filed by Peter Calveley.[3] Calveley cited as prior art an earlier e-commerce patent and the Digicash electronic cash system.
On October 9, 2007, the USPTO issued an office action in the reexamination which confirmed the patentability of claims 6 to 10 of the patent.[4] The patent examiner, however, rejected claims 1 to 5 and 11 to 26. In November 2007, Amazon responded by amending the broadest claims (1 and 11) to restrict them to a shopping cart model of commerce. They have also submitted several hundred references for the examiner to consider.[5] In March 2010, the reexamined and amended patent was allowed.[6][7][8]
Amazon’s U.S. patent expired on September 11, 2017.[9]
In Europe, EP application 1134680 on 1-Click ordering was filed with the European Patent Office but refused.[10] A related gift-ordering patent was granted in 2003, but revoked in 2007 following an opposition.[11]
In Canada, the Federal Court of Canada held that the One click patent could not be rejected as a pure business method since it had a physical effect. The Court remanded the application to the Canadian patent office for a reexamination.[12]
Licensing
Apple Inc.
Amazon.com in 2000 licensed 1-Click ordering to Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) for use on its online store.[13][14] Apple subsequently added 1-Click ordering to the iTunes Store[15] and iPhoto.[16]
Barnes & Noble
Amazon filed a patent infringement lawsuit in October 1999 in response to Barnes & Noble offering a 1-Click ordering option called “Express Lane.” After reviewing the evidence, a judge issued a preliminary injunction ordering Barnes & Noble to stop offering Express Lane until the case was settled.[17] Barnes & Noble had developed a way to design around the patent by requiring shoppers to make a second click to confirm their purchase.[18][19] The lawsuit was settled in 2002. The terms of the settlement, including whether or not Barnes & Noble took a license to the patent or paid any money to Amazon, were not disclosed.[20]
In response to the lawsuit, the Free Software Foundation urged a boycott of Amazon.com. The boycott was lifted in September 2002.[21]
TeacherLists
TeacherLists, an online supply list solution, made one-click back-to-school supply list shopping available through major retailers in 2017.
INNOVATOR’s PATENT AGREEMENT
Sample agreement taken from
“Innovators Patent Agreement” © 2012 Twitter, Inc, used under a Creative Commons Attribution Unported license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
INNOVATOR’s PATENT AGREEMENT (IPA), Version 1.0
This INNOVATOR’s PATENT AGREEMENT (“Agreement”) is made between the person(s) named below (collectively referred to as “Inventors”) and [COMPANY NAME], a [State of Incorporation] corporation, having a place of business at Company Address (“Company”).
WHEREAS the Inventors have invented certain patentable subject matter which they desire to assign to the Company;
NOW, THEREFORE, for good and valuable consideration, the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, the parties agree as follows:
- Subject to the terms and conditions herein, Inventors do hereby sell, assign, and transfer and have sold, assigned, and transferred to the Company, for itself and its successors, transferees, and assignees, the entire worldwide right, title, and interest in and to the following patent application(s):
Title Application No. Filed on including (a) any and all inventions and improvements (“Subject Matter”) disclosed therein; (b) all right of priority in the above application(s) and in any underlying provisional or foreign application; (c) all provisional, utility, divisional, continuation, substitute, renewal, reissue, and other applications related thereto which have been or may be filed in the United States or elsewhere in the world; and (d) all patents (“Patents”), including reissues and reexaminations, which may be granted on any of the above applications, together with all rights to recover damages for infringement, including infringement of provisional rights.
- The Company, on behalf of itself and its successors, transferees, and assignees (collectively the “Assignee”), agrees not to assert any claims of any Patents which may be granted on any of the above applications unless asserted for a Defensive Purpose. An assertion of claims of the Patents shall be considered for a “Defensive Purpose” if the claims are asserted:(a) against an Entity that has filed, maintained, threatened, or voluntarily participated in a patent infringement lawsuit against Assignee or any of Assignee’s users, affiliates, customers, suppliers, or distributors;
(b) against an Entity that has filed, maintained, or voluntarily participated in a patent infringement lawsuit against another in the past ten years, so long as the Entity has not instituted the patent infringement lawsuit defensively in response to a patent litigation threat against the Entity; or
(c) otherwise to deter a patent litigation threat against Assignee or Assignee’s users, affiliates, customers, suppliers, or distributors.
If Assignee needs to assert any of the Patent claims against any Entity for other than a Defensive Purpose, Assignees must obtain prior written permission from all of the Inventors without additional consideration or threat.
“Entity” means an individual, partnership, corporation, limited liability company, association, joint venture, trust, unincorporated organization or other entity. “Affiliate” means with respect to any Entity, any other Entity, whether or not existing on the date hereof, controlling controlled by or under common control with such first Entity. The term “control” (including with correlative meaning the terms “controlled by” and “under common control with”), as used with respect to any Entity, means the possession, directly or indirectly, of the power to direct or cause the direction or management and policies of such Entity, whether through the ownership of voting securities, by contract or otherwise.
Assignee acknowledges and agrees that the above promises are intended to run with the Patents and are binding on any future owner, assignee or exclusive licensee who has been given the right to enforce any claims of the Patents against third parties. Assignee covenants with Inventors that any assignment or transfer of its right, title, or interest herein will be conveyed with the promises herein as an encumbrance.
- Inventors agree that Assignee may apply for and receive patents for Subject Matter in Assignee’s own name. Inventors agree, when requested, and without further consideration, to execute all papers necessary to fully secure to Assignee the rights, titles and interests herein conveyed. Inventors represent that Inventors have the rights, titles, and interests to convey as set forth herein; and Inventors covenant with Assignee that Inventors have not made and will not make any assignment, grant, mortgage, license, or other agreement affecting the rights, titles, and interests herein conveyed, except as explicitly set forth herein.
- The Assignee hereby grants to the Inventors a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, no-charge irrevocable license under the Patents, the license explicitly limited to those rights necessary to enforce the promises made by Assignee in section 2. Accordingly, if Assignee asserts any of the Patent claims against any entity in a manner that breaks the promises of section 2, the Inventors, individually or jointly, may grant written nonexclusive sublicenses, without the right to further sublicense, the scope of the sublicense being limited to those rights necessary to enforce the promises made by Assignee in section 2.Any sublicense granted by the Inventors under this section must be without threat or additional consideration; otherwise, the sublicense will be considered void ab initio. This license to the Inventors is not assignable, although the license shall pass to the heirs of an inventor in the case that the inventor is deceased, and the inventors, individually or jointly, may appoint a representative who may act on their behalf in granting sublicenses under this section. Assignee acknowledges and agrees that the promises in section 2 and 4 are intended to benefit third parties, except in the case of an assertion of claims of the Patents authorized under section 2.
AGREED TO AND ACCEPTED:
_____________________________ Inventor
[INVENTOR NAME]_____________________________ Company representative
[NAME]Sample Patent Agreement
Innovators Patent Agreement
The Innovators Patent Agreement (IPA) is a new way to do patent assignment that keeps control in the hands of engineers and designers. It is a commitment from a company to its employees that patents can only be used for defensive purposes. The company will not use the patents in offensive litigation without the permission of the inventors. This control flows with the patents, so if the company sells the patents to others, the assignee can only use the patents as the inventor intended.
Quick Start / Deployment
DISCLAIMER: The IPA and the supporting materials are available for informational purposes only and are NOT for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact a lawyer if you want to get advice with respect to any particular aspect of the IPA or if you want to implement it.
1. Modify your employee agreements.
You should have a standard employee agreement that deals with inventions and that includes a provision requiring that employees assign their inventions to the company. You can include the following sentence in your employee agreement dealing with invention assignments:
The Company and I agree, notwithstanding any other provision of this agreement, that any invention to be assigned by me to the Company under this agreement shall be assigned in accordance with the Innovator’s Patent Agreement (“IPA”) and, if a patent application is filed on any invention, that a copy of the executed IPA shall be recorded with the assignment branch of the patent office where the patent application is filed.
2. Use the IPA with any patents you file.
Whenever you file a patent application, it is typical to have the inventor sign a patent assignment agreement which specifically assigns the patent application to the company. Instead of using whatever form your patent agent uses, use the IPA instead.
The IPA should be signed by both the inventor and a corporate representative.
After the IPA is signed, you should make sure that the document is recorded with the assignment branch of the Patent Office. This puts the whole world on notice that this patent application has been assigned in accordance with the provisions of the IPA.
FAQ
For Companies | For Inventors/Engineers | For Investors
For Companies:
Q. How does the IPA work?
A. The IPA includes a commitment from your company to your employees that their patents will be used for defensive purposes and will not be used in offensive litigation without their permission. What’s more, this control flows with the patents, so if the patents were sold to others, they could only use them as the inventor intended.
Q: What does “defensive purposes” mean?
A: Defensive purposes means that you can defend yourself should another party try to initiate patent litigation against you or your customers or users. Under the IPA, it also means that you can use these patents against anyone who has sued others offensively in the past (up to ten years).
Q: How is this actually in the company’s best interest, given how litigious the patent area is?
A: The IPA strikes a balance here. Your company keeps the capability to use patents defensively if someone sues you, or you have the option of pursuing legal action if you have the consent of the inventor. You do not keep the capability to seek patent licensing fees from others who have not used patents offensively. Nor can you sell your patents to someone who will seek patent licensing fees from them.
Q: So then why bother obtaining patents at all, if you’re going to let anyone use your technology?
A: Under the IPA, the principal value of patents is defensive. Patents are still important because you are reserving the ability to defend yourself with them while empowering your engineers by giving them a greater stake in the patent process.
Q: Doesn’t the IPA destroy corporate value?
A: We recommend that you discuss the IPA with your board of directors to understand the impact of adopting the IPA on corporate value. Whether the IPA may be right for your organization depends on a lot of factors, including whether your business model is based on generating revenue from patent licensing fees or whether it is based on competing by innovating and providing the best product or service.
For Inventors/Engineers:
Q: What does this IPA mean for me, as an engineer/designer?
A: The IPA is a new way to do patent assignment that keeps some control in the hands of engineers and designers. When you assign a patent to an entity using the IPA, your patent can only be used for defensive purposes and will not be used in offensive litigation without your permission. With the IPA, you can be assured that your patents will be used only as a shield rather than as a weapon.
Q: What stops a company from simply going back on its promises to me under the IPA?
A: With the IPA, the inventors receive the ability to license anyone who has been improperly sued in violation of the IPA. So, even if the company changes its mind, you have the ability to hold them accountable under the IPA. Even if a patent monetizer purchases the patent and tries to argue that they are not bound by the restrictions of the IPA, you can protect anyone sued by the patent monetizers by licensing them in accordance with the IPA. We believe this license will survive any transfer of the patents.
Q: What if I work for a company that doesn’t use the IPA?
A: Is your company saying that it is filing the patent for defensive purposes? If it is, ask your company representative whether they are willing to put that in writing by using the IPA. If they are unwilling to do put their promise in writing, you may want to ask yourself why (and consider working someplace else #jointheflock).
Note that even if the company issues a pledge that the patent will not be asserted offensively, that pledge may not be enforceable if there is a change in management or if the company goes through bankruptcy. Even if you work at a company that promises you that they will not use patents offensively, this may not prevent the company from later being liquidated so that the patents end up in the hands of entities that seek to monetize them.
For Investors:
Q: Why should I encourage the startups that I invest in to use the IPA?
A: First, the IPA affords flexibility for a small startup. The IPA allows unrestricted use of the patents if the inventors consent. So, a small startup can still use its IPA patents offensively if the inventors (who are likely to be founders of the startup) agree that it is strategically necessary for the sake of the startup.
Second, the IPA limits the negative consequences if the startup fails. Without the IPA, when a startup fails, the patents survive to become fodder for patent monetizers. These patent monetizers never commercialize the inventions. Rather, they feed off of these patents and can create a patent thicket for future startups. The IPA restricts such patent monetizers. Patents under the IPA cannot be used offensively against future generations of startups.
Q: Doesn’t the IPA reduce the value of the startup?
A: We recommend that you discuss the IPA with your board of directors to understand the impact of adopting the IPA on your value. Whether the IPA may be right for your organization depends on a lot of factors, including whether your business model is based on generating revenue from patent licensing fees or whether it is based on competing by innovating and providing the best product or service. Depending on the nature of your business and your long term goals, the IPA can provide significant benefits for your company.
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
For attribution requirements:
“Innovators Patent Agreement” © 2012 Twitter, Inc, used under a Creative Commons Attribution Unported license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Patent Searching & Mapping
A workshop on Patent Searching & Mapping is designed for IP Strategists, Patent Re-searchers, Patent Attorneys, R&D professionals at CSIR National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Kerala on 16th May 2012.