In 2006, Analysis in Movement, the maker of the once-ubiquitous BlackBerry machine, needed to pay $612.5 million to a patent holding company, NTP. Often known as “patent trolls,” these are individuals or firms that register patents with the only function of being the patent holder, although they don’t plan on manufacturing any product or delivering any service that includes the know-how patented. Their modus operandi revolves round submitting for patents to allow them to implement patent rights and procure some form of compensation, and this generates bills for companies upwards of $29 billion in direct costs.
That is solely one of many potential issues that you’re more likely to encounter in case you’ve invented one thing in a discipline as progressive and convoluted as AI, through which know-how patents are notoriously difficult to acquire. It’s a course of that I’ve navigated, and one that’s riddled with challenges and uncertainties, significantly as a result of code can’t be patented, and mathematical algorithms are not patentable in many jurisdictions.
What is feasible is to patent normal rules in addition to the sequence of steps concerned within the corresponding innovation.
On this regard, there are two attainable dangerous eventualities:
- You find yourself with a imprecise patent that doesn’t present full safety. This leaves you in a weak place.
- Inevitably, you’ll run throughout a number of different patents which have similarities to yours, even in case you genuinely have made a singular discovery. This could result in your patent being rejected.
To maximise your possibilities of getting this grueling course of proper, listed here are 4 suggestions that may assist defend your work so you’ll be able to capitalize on it.
Participating in a dialog with a patent examiner is very similar to showing earlier than a choose in a court docket of regulation: Honesty is the one coverage.
Double down on due diligence at each step
Earlier than you file a provisional patent, do meticulous analysis to see if there are any related ones already registered. Then repeat the method earlier than submitting your fundamental patent utility.
As tedious as this sounds, it is necessary that you simply do it. New, related patents will possible seem throughout that hole yr between your provisional patent and your fundamental patent, particularly in AI, which is a sector that many entrepreneurs try to get into and monetize. Do not forget that after getting filed your fundamental patent, the textual content is about in stone — you can not change it.
Additionally, in case your patent will get rejected and also you get the prospect to attach with the related examiner and incorporate their ideas, you will want to conduct one other patent search. Even in case you already did this numerous instances earlier than submitting, doing this analysis could make the distinction between having to repeat this course of once more and being given the inexperienced gentle.