Patent Requirements
According to HowStuffWorks there are three requirements that must be met in order for an invention to be patentable:

1. Novel - The invention must be “substantially unlike anything that is already patented, has already been on the market, or has been written about in publication.” It appears that you cannot even patent your own invention if it has been on the market or discussed in publications for more than a year!
2. Nonobvious - “A person of standard skill in the area of study wouldn’t automatically come up with the same idea upon examining the existing invention.” This aspect mainly applies to modifications to existing devices – HSW provides an example of modifying a toaster to handle more pieces of toast – this would fail the nonobvious test.
3. Useful - The invention must serve some purpose and actually work. HSW provides examples of time travel and random patterns of gears not being useful, although time travel may be purposeful it won’t work, at least as far as I’m aware. In addition, the random pattern of gears is not purposeful and will not work if not arranged in a meaningful way.

So now you meet the three requirements of being novel, nonobvious, and useful; next let’s discuss the types of items you may and may not patent.

Patentable Items
As you may recall, patentable items include but are not limited to hardware (machinery), software programs, and business/manufacturing processes among others. Here are a few guidelines for patentable items as outlined by HowStuffWorks:

1. Things that don’t exist yet
2. Standard technological machines and machine advancements
3. Certain computer programs
4. Industrial processes
5. Unique designs (tire or shoe-tread patters)
6. Items that may not be new, but are combined in a unique and innovative way

What I found interesting is that scientists cannot patent discoveries in the natural world, for example new species of animals or plant life. Although there are exceptions being made due to advances in genetic engineering – if it’s created in a lab, it just may be patentable. This doesn’t apply in our case, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

Interesting Facts
While reviewing patent information I found some interesting facts. First, it turns out that Thomas Edison is the inventor with the most patents in U.S. history – with over 1,093 patents to his name. Incredibly after setting up his lab in Menlo Park he set a self-imposed schedule of one small invention every 10 days and one major invention every six months!

Another interesting tidbit is that IBM is the company with the most patents, with over 2,000 patents as of 1999; this number has likely greatly increased since that time. It’s astounding to think that by the end of his life Edison had roughly half the patents that a large organization such as IBM has!

Anyone who has ever tried to invent something can attest to how difficult coming up with a  new viable idea can be. It’s simply amazing the type and amount of innovation that occurs within the United States – surely a driving force for the great things we have achieved.

So far we’ve built some pretty strong momentum, having whipped up a quick prototype and developed an Idea Overview document which outlines in general terms our overall idea and our approach to bringing it to market. With that being nearly complete I have moved on to investigating patents as our idea does have some secret sauce.

How Stuff Works
I found a good overview and refresher at HowStuffWorks – for those who haven’t been to that site before, I had discovered it in engineering graduate school where it served as a useful resource. The site has since been expanded to cover the operation and process of nearly anything you can think of. Definitely worth a stop if you need to find out how something works.

How Patents Work
Here is a basic overview of patents and some interesting information that I had turned up, some of which I already knew, and other information which was new.

Patents basically provide protection of something newly invented that did not previously exist, basically it protects intellectual property (IP) of an individual inventor or company. A patent does not guarantee protection from IP infringement, it basically just sets up your defense and provides the groundwork for which to defend your claim to the invented idea. It is the inventor’s or company’s responsibility to pursue any patent infringement. A patent can protect newly invented hardware such as machinery, software programs, or even processes of which something is accomplished or manufactured.

This patent protection lasts up to 20 years in the U.S., but it is up to the inventor/company to pursue infringement of said patent. HowStuffWorks discusses an interesting example – Jerome Lemelson who essentially invented the camcorder or significantly contributed to it’s invention – yet he had to spend most of his life proving it, he finally won, but in terms of significant cost of time and money. So, to reiterate, contrary to popular belief, patents do not guarantee protection, they just give you a leg to stand on so to speak.

There are many instances of claimed IP infringement from large companies allegedly stealing ideas from individual inventors – under the assumption that they do not have the time or money to defend their patents. Refer to one of my previous articles, “Inspiration Strikes” for an example of such a case. Many companies claim that they had the idea under development simultaneously under secrecy. This may or may not be true depending on the circumstances – given the level of protection that companies protect their product development efforts it is feasible. Who can say for sure?

I have also heard from others within the New England business community that the 20 years of protection is optimistic at best. It is said that a patent must be continually refined every couple of years or so to ensure that others do not design around the patent or find some other loophole. So don’t think that you can file for your patent, have it granted, and just file it away!

Tomorrow I will discuss patent requirements and the types of items that are patentable.

All other blog entries I plan on making here at CCBbuzz, the form of which I believe will be of journaling – documenting my experiences that I believe would serve of use to others. I have also found such journaling as a handy reference for myself since it’s easily searchable by Google – I can’t say the same for my other notes!

Although much has changed since my last CCBbuzz post, this next phase will likely continue to fall within personal development and stay consistent with our “bee enlightened” theme. As a lifelong learner I am constantly on the lookout for useful new knowledge and how to apply such knowledge – I will catalogue my journey here.

Stay tuned for more information – and if you have a chance check out our work at Analytica – our business consulting blog.