To be clear, once an application has been made there is considerable protection until the patent is issued. As someone mentioned there are lots of patent applied for notices on manufactured items.
?? Also, Some companies relied more on trade secret protection. Eastman Kodak did this for many years because there is no time limit on it. They began to rely more on patents when the rate of discovery of new products became rapid enough for a patent to last through the market life. A trade secret can protect one against having a product design stolen but not against independent discovery.
?? Patent law seems to be extremely convoluted although it still not as bad as copyright law.
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On 2/21/2022 3:38 PM, Francesco Ledda via groups.io wrote:
No, you cannot apply for a patent if the invention has already been publicly disclosed. Public disclosure includes going to mass manufacturing.
The patent checklist a Rockwell International and Northern Telecom included items such a date first customer trial.? That date was used by the attorneys to figure out when they needed to apply for a patent.
I have 4 patents, and a key condition for the application was any possible disclosure and that included manufacturing.? The application date is key, as the actual award date is not important. Many patents take years to be awarded.
Regarding big companies, new possible patentable ideas were presented to patent committees. ?Patent committees accepted and rejected ideas and graded them. ?Once the grading was done, the decision went to the executives ?that matched funding available for patents with business needs.
Best, Francesco K5URG
*From:* [email protected] <[email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Steve - Home
*Sent:* Monday, February 21, 2022 5:14 PM
*To:* [email protected]
*Subject:* Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] How to find patents for HP equipment
?Not at all, you can go into production at any time. But you do risk ¡°spilling the beans¡± before the patent protection kicks in. Lots of devices out there with ¡°patent pending¡± stamped on them. I always figured that was grist for patent poachers and idea thieves.
Steve
On Feb 21, 2022, at 4:59 PM, Francesco Ledda via groups.io
<k5urg@...> wrote:
?I believe that a patent must be filed before the product
hits the market!
On Feb 21, 2022, at 16:48, saipan59 (Pete)
<saipan1959@...> wrote:
?Don't know if it helps, but can you search against
Grant Date, rather than Filing Date? My thinking is
that Grant is almost certainly going to be after
product release, so maybe it's a narrower range. During
development, there is often little time to do the
patent stuff. But closer to Release time, the designers
(may) be less busy, the design details are firm, and
they can think about patentable stuff. I could be wrong...
Trivia: My career was with DEC, then with HP and HPE.
DEC was "stingy" about spending money for patents. In
the late 80's I submitted a Disclosure as an employee
of Manufacturing. DEC said basically "good idea, but in
Manufacturing we can just keep it a secret, so no need
for a patent."
But HP was very generous with patents. Simply
submitting the disclosure paperwork paid the employee
$100. If the patent was actually granted, they paid
another $1000. I got two in my career (8184982 and
8648568) - the second one took 4 years until it was
granted (but it was submitted first).
Pete
--
Richard Knoppow
dickburk@...
WB6KBL
