Re: How to prevent control over invention

McGyver wrote:
<softwarelabus@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1155911904.523891.323900@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
What would an inventor do if he has an invention that he
wants to freely give to the world without losing control (without
having some company steal and control the technology/device)?

One person recommended filing for a provisional application, which
gives the inventor one year to file for a patent in the US. This sounds
great for US control, but I'm told this causes major problems in
controlling the technology worldwide.

Should the inventor first file an international (PCT) application
followed by a US provisional application? This seems so complicated
and unpredictable. Isn't there a simple solution? For example, how
did the inventor of the cell phone keep it public domain?

Here are some sites that publish for a small fee of a few hundred
dollars:
http://www.priorartdatabase.com
http://www.researchdisclosure.com

The goal is to have the technology/device immediately freely available
to anyone to build and sell for whatever profits he or she wishes. So
if this person or that person or 10 thousand people want to build such
a device in their garage or wherever and sell it for whatever price he
or she wishes then there should be no legal problems.

Your objective was not properly stated. You cannot "freely give to the
world without losing control." You can make it possible for others,
including competing manufacturers, to challenge any patent application, but
you won't be the one doing the challenging and you won't be retaining any
control. Patents are granted to inventors. A company who grabs the idea
and files a patent application gets nowhere unless that company can
successfully claim to be the inventor (including in the sense of employing
the inventor). Likewise, the patent application will be denied if the
patentable idea has previously been published in a public way without
restriction. So the trick is to give ammo to people who can be counted on
to challenge a claimant's patent application. That includes the claimant's
competitors. The method is to publish the invention in a public manner, in
all possible detail. Your own website would be good enough. Include a
statement ceding all rights in the invention to the public domain. You can
even include a sworn, notarized statement that you are the inventor. Send
the URL to several universities, libraries and to various manufacturers who
you think would be eager to challenge any patent application. I didn't
review those websites you posted links to, but they also might be good
places to disclose the information.

A patent followed by an assignment to the public domain would do it. A
provisional patent subsequently abandoned might do it, but I don't know. I
don't know what the government does with such applications.

Hey, wait. Here's another idea. File for copyright protection on a book or
magazine article or research paper containing full disclosure. (That costs
$20 unless they increased the fee when I wasn't looking). Submit a copy of
the paper with the application. That way the U.S. Government has a copy and
the date of publication is a matter of public record. That proves that the
invention was done before that date, and proves publication to a public
forum. Then refer to the copyright in your website disclosure. That should
make it easy for anyone to contest any patent application.

This answer must not be relied on as legal advice for the reasons posted
here: http://mcgyverdisclaimer.blogspot.com

McGyver


I very much appreciate the information McGyver.

You said,

"The method is to publish the invention in a public manner, in all
possible detail. Your own website would be good enough."

That's good idea. What's the general consensus about the following
technique:

* Publish details to a large wiki that is archived by archive.org and
Google News.
* Publish details to your own web site.
* Emails details to various professors, scientists, etc.
* Mail details in a self addressed letter.
* Post details to Yahoo Groups forum.

All the above when combine should be more than adequate evidence to
prove prior art, right?

Thanks,
Paul

.

Relevant Pages

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