Xerox PARC & Intellectual Property

Xerox PARC Inventions

• Xerox PARC invented the personal computer (PC).
• Xerox PARC also invented the point-and-click graphical user interface (GUI).
• The laser printer was also created by Xerox PARC.
• Xerox PARC also invented the Ethernet.

Xerox PARC's Missed Opportunity

• Xerox PARC did not patent their inventions.
• Others later used these technologies with great success.
• Xerox PARC didn't keep the technologies secret.

Companies with Intellectual Property

• Apple, 3Com, Adobe Systems, Microsoft, IBM, and Hewlett Packard all rely on Intellectual Property

Core Concept of Intellectual Property

• Intellectual property (IP) stems from imagination and creativity.
• IP encompasses ideas but ideas themselves are not protectable
• If ideas are recorded, written down or described, they gain protection.

Where Ideas Originate

• Ideas can emerge from artistic, aesthetic, commercial, and technical fields.

How To Protect Your Ideas With IPR

• Ideas can be safeguarded through various Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs).
• The specific type of IPR depends on the nature of the idea.

Legal Rights

• Patents protect new inventions through application and examination.
• Utility models protect new inventions through application and registration.
• Copyright protects original creative or artistic forms automatically.
• Trade marks protect distinctive identification of products or services through use and/or registration.
• Registered designs protect external appearance through registration.
• Trade secrets protect valuable information not known to the public through reasonable efforts to keep that information secret.

A Single Product With Multiple IP Rights

• Trademarks can protect the product name, product number, startup tone etc.
• Copyright protects the software, user manuals, ringtones, startup tone, and images.
• Patents and utility models protect data-processing methods, operating systems, and user interface operation.
• Designs protect overall phone form, button arrangement, and screen position/shape.
• Trade secrets include technical know-how kept "in-house."

Importance of Intellectual Property in Business

• IP is a crucial business asset in the knowledge economy.
• Sandvik AB uses innovative high-technology tools and steel technology.
• ARM Holdings licenses its technology to microprocessor companies.
• IP safeguards small innovative firms, such as W. L. Gore & Associates & Dolby Laboratories.

How IP Enables Public Domain Release

• IP is essential for releasing IP into the public domain under controlled conditions.
• General Public License (GPL): Linux & Creative Commons License.
• IP guarantees public benefit standards through licensed trade marks, such as Fairtrade International (FAIRTRADE) & Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

The IP System

• Innovators invest heavily in new product development.
• Without IP protection, competitors can benefit from the innovator's efforts.
• IP system grants rights over the use of inventions, designs, brands, and literary/artistic works.
• Competitors can undercut innovators by offering cheaper, similar products.

Examples of Valuable IP

• Coca-Cola, Apple iPod, Harry Potter, Polaroid instant camera, and DNA copying process are examples of valuable IP.

Patents

• Patents encourages technological innovation.
• Patents promotes competition and investment.
• Patents provides information on the latest technical developments.
• Patents promotes technology transfer.

Patents as social contract

• Patents requires revealing the invention (disclosure)
• In return, the patent applicant gets exclusivity

Rights Given by Patents

• Patents: Right to prevent others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing infringing products where the patent was granted
• Exception: non-commercial purposes (private use, academic research)
• The right to assign, sell, or license these rights

Limitations of Patent Rights

• A patent does not automatically grant the right to exploit an invention.
• Patents give the right to prevent others from exploiting the invention.
• Patents owned by others may overlap or encompass a patent, so you must seek a licence before commercialising said patent.

Features of a Patent Document

• Includes the publication date, filing date, applicant, application number, technical class, and inventor.
• Contains an abstract, description, claims, and drawings.

Patent Description Must Include:

• Prior art
• Issue of prior art
• Solution to issue
• Advantage of the invention

Patentable vs. Non-Patentable Inventions

• Patents protect technical inventions that solve technical problems.
• For an invention to be patentable, it must be new to the world and inventive.
• Be susceptible to industrial application
• Most countries don't grant patents for mere business methods or rules of games.
• Patents are not granted for methods of treatment, diagnostics, or surgery on humans/animals.
• Patents are not granted for inventions contrary to public order/morality.

Criteria for Considering an Invention "New"

• It must not be part of the state of the art.
• State of the art is everything made available to the public before the filing date.
• Keep you invention confidential until you have filed your application!

How Inventions Must Be Safeguarded

• Avoid pre-filing publications (articles, press releases, conference material, blogs, etc.).
• Do not sell infringing products before filing.
• Sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
• Have professional advice at an early stage
• File for patent before anyone else.

"Inventive" Inventions

• The invention must not be obvious to a person skilled in the art

Patentability of an invention

• Is assessed by considering the prior art, objective problems, and obvious solutions.

How to Obtain Patent Protection in Europe

• You apply through the national route (separate in each state), or the regional route (European Patent Convention)

European Patent Convention

• European Patent Convention requires on application, filled at one office for up to 42 states.
• This follows one procedure.
• Applicant selects the desired states.
• The patent is valid for up to 42 states
• This results in a bundle of national patents

Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)

• Requires a single application for up to 148 countries.
• Harmonises formal standards (language, patent agent, fees)
• Involves a search report and opinion on patentability. Decision by the applicant after 30-31 months.

European Patent Office Grant Procedure

• Application is filed alongside a search report, then published.
• Process goes through an examination and is granted or expires.

Advantages of Getting a Patent

• Exclusivity to encourage investment.
• Strong, enforceable legal right.
• Enables the invention being traded (license, sale).

Disadvantages of Getting a Patent

• Reveals invention to competitors (after 18 months).
• Can be expensive.
• The grant may take 3-5 years.
• Legal right is only enforceable after the grant.

Alternatives to getting a Patent

• Disclose (publish) the information (reduces cost, but offers competitors information and means others are unable to get a patent).
• Keep the invention secret (reduces cost but difficult to enforce if secrets are leaked, as this protects against engineering)
• Do nothing (no effort is required, but offers no exclusivity, enabling competitors to learn details).

Points to Analyse Before Applying

• Cost/benefit analysis
• Is the invention patentable?
• Has the company clarified invention rights with its employees and partners?

Considerations Before Filing a Patent Application

• Conduct a prior art search and Get legal advice

Result of Not Patenting

• Others can patent your idea.
• Competitors might take advantage.
• Technology transffers can get severely curtailed.

Uses for Patents

• Protecting products and processes.
• Licensing.
• Cross-licensing.
• Blocking competitors.
• Building reputation.

Inventions Already Made

• 15-25% of all R&D efforts go to waste in inventing ideas that exist already
• Do a search before starting R&D

Where to Find Competitor Information

• Around 80% of all information can be found in patents, which makes them are a great source to review

Factors Affecting Competitors

• Applications rejected/withdrawn or patent invalidated.
• Payment of renewal fees discontinued.
• Patents have lapsed.