Protecting Your Ideas

199

Annotated References

Review

The advantage to patenting is that it provides the owner with

the fight to exclude others from making, using, selling or importing

the invention in the U.S. Without a patent, one must face the compe-

tition head-on. For a product with a short shelf-life, this may not be

so bad. However, for those products having a shelf-life greater than 3

years, the competition could defeat a business.

For those entities who wish to create a revenue stream through

the payment of royalties, patent protection may be the only option.

Patents secure the property fights in the invention and serve as a ve-

hicle for licensing new technology. The real advantage to having a

patent for an invention resides in the exclusive fights granted to the

patentee (Figure 9.1).

Annotated References

1. Edvinsson, Leif and Michael S. Malone (1997).

In

"Intellectual Capital".

HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., New York.

(Resource for information about valuing a com-

pany based on its intellectual capital.)

2. Private communication with Anthony Venturino, Esq. of Stevens, Davis,

Miller & Mosher, L.L.P., Washington, D.C.

(Cost ofpatent litigation.)

3. Intellectual Property Insurance Services Corporation, Louisville, Ken-

tucky.

(Company offering intellectual property insurance.)

4. First Principals, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.

(Afirm specializing in technology trans-

fer and commercialization.)

5. "Research Disclosure," Kenneth Mason Publications, Ltd., U.K.

(A defensive

publication that prevents others from patenting similar technologies while minimizing costs and

eliminating the need to obtain a patent.)

6. McCarthy, J. T. (1996).

In

"McCarthy's Desk Encyclopedia of Intellectual

Property" 2nd ed., pp. 415-416. BNA Books, Washington, DC.

(Definition of statutory

invention registration.)

qfa{e9

i ,i,]

The Commissioner of

Patents and Trademarks

Has received an application for a patent for a

new and useful inventiolt The title and descrip-

tion of the invention are enclosed. The require-

ments of law have been complied with, and it

has been determined that a patent on the in-

vention shall be granted under the law.

Therefore, this

United States Patent

Grants to the person(s) having title to this patent

the right to exclude others from making, using,

offering for sale, orselling the invention

throughout the United States of America or im-

porting the invention into the United States of

America for the term set forth below, subject to

the payment of maintenance fees as provided

by taw.

If this application was filed prior to June 8,

1995, the term of this patent is the longer of

seventeen years from the date of grant of this

patent or twenty years from the earliest effec-

tive U.S. filing date of the application, subject

to any statutory extension.

If this application was filed on or after June 8,

1995, the term of this patent it twenty years from

the U.S. filing date, subject to any statutory ex-

tension. If the application contains a specific

reference to an earlier filed application or ap-

plications under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121 or 365(c),

the term of the patent is twenty years from the

date on which the earliest application was filed,

subject to any statutory extension.

Comm~ior~r of

P~r~ ~

Tmidemm~

Alibi

FIGURE 9.1

The ribboned page from a U.S. utility patent. This page is only available

to the patentee. The seal is gold foil and the ribbon is red. Note that the

page sets forth, in writing, a grant from the Commissioner of Patents

and Trademarks the right to exclude others from making, using, ofFer-

ing for sale, or selling the invention throughout the U.S. or importing

the invention into the U.S. for a specific term.

200