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eBay For Patents?
ContinuousPark writes: "Former UCLA professor Nir Kossovsky has created a website called The Patent & License Exchange. It's basically an eBay for intellectual property. The idea is that there are so many patents granted but yet very few real commercial applications of them. So now it's easier to buy licenses because patent holders will actively promote their patents in this marketplace. Now, I wonder what will happen when they start trading software patents? Would you buy a 1-Click patent or something as trivial as that? How much would you pay?"
Dear Plx,
Regarding the amazon one-click item you sold me last week. One click!? pfffft yea right. I've clicked repeatedly and no books have appeared. I look forward to you're prompt handling of my complaint.
Regards,
John Q. Public
On another note: Any company that would willingly put content on-line in .ppt format can't have all their oars in the water.
___
Coming soon:
"One click, two click, red click, blue click... All patented."
-apologies to Dr. Seuss
Really though, this idea will only encourage more patenting of silly things. If people know there is a market for something, then they will create product to provide for that market. Accordingly, if this "e-bay for patents" becomes successful, we will have people patenting things that really shouldn't be patented (like one-click ordering) because they know they can sell them. Further, if they are selling them cheaply enough, the whole patent process is undermined: Rather than having to spend a few million dollars to challenge a frivolous patent, you can just buy it for $100. And given the volume this will create, the patent office will become even less careful about checking for prior art. Really, this idea just encourages people to patent everything in order to try and make a quick buck.
But, I guess the domain name campers need something else to do now. . .
However buying patent rights or licenses is definitely not something you want to do without a patent lawyer not merely approving, but preferably managing the process, to make sure you are buying the rights you need, now and in the future. Of course, if you're buying a patent or license, you'll want a lawyer to do a full patent search for any other applicable patents (at the PTO) anyway.
This may put a different gloss on the breezy image of an 'ebay for patents'. This will be a place where entrepreneurs may want to rubberneck, but the serious business is transacted between lawyers.
__________
If you can go to bed, knowing you did a valuable thing today, you're very lucky. If you can't... it's not bedtime
Sincerely,
The Management
Stay up hacking each weekend. Sleep is for the week.
After eBay and other online aution places got popular, a large group of 'helper' programs were created. Ones that would let you know when you'd been outbid, or others that would help you snipe off auctions.
With this, I predict we'll see the same sort of helper applications emerging. By far the most used, however, will be:
The Auto-Lawsuit Tracker!
With all the lawsuits over patent infringements, how will you know who to sue when you get a new patent? Was Barnes and Noble infringing on that brand new invention you bought, or was it Netpliance? The Auto Lawsuit Tracker (patent pending) will keep track of the shifting patent battlefield for you!
The Auto-Lawsuit Tracker - available at computer stores everywhere!
Also:
Auto-Lawsuit Tracker deluxe edition - the deluxe edition will automatically send official cease-and-desist letters to people who appear to be violating your patent, whether or not they are actually doing any wrong! Auto-Lawsuit Tracker deluxe - it's not just the only way to punish the little guy, it's the best way!
-Denor
This is a very interesting idea. As an inventor on three biotech related patents I can see the value of a site such as this. Some universities don't have the tech savvy marketing teams to find and pitch a patent to the right company. My patents were liscenced long before they issued and thus wouldn't have benefitted from this exchange. The marketing was done by my former advisor not the university. Since then I have met several scientists who have invented exciting new technologies but do not have the business savvy to attract investors and start a company themselves nor do they (or their universities) have the marketing savvy to find the right company to liscence the technology.
More than anything I would love to see a database of patent applications up for auction. Currently it is hard to get info on patent applications. A site containing a database of patent applications up for bidding would really attract attention as that info is not readily available in the freemarket. They could probably be profitable by selling access to their database alone. If you cant find companies to liscence your patent application you can put it online to the highest bidders. You would be tipping your hand to potential competition but at the same time you would be accelerating tech transfer.
To the above posters to feel that such a system would just encourage people to patent anything, the solution to this problem is to reform the USPTO such that they don't grant patents frivilously. Remember that a patent must be sucessfully defended in a court to really be worth its words.
To think about this patent-auction site reasonably you have to forget about software patents and think about all technology based patents. For many scientific areas this could be a great thing.
no sig.
2) You can buy licenses [to use the patented idea in a specified way] or the patent itself [acquiring all the *created* rights the original owner had]. Since companies generally negotiate the license that they buy, that than buy 'take-it-or-leave-it' deals like a shrinkwrap licenses, the extent of a license can vary dramatically. Many commercial licenses, for example, allow the buyer to 'sub-license' the technology to others (with conditions)
3) One right that cannot genuinely be sold is the right to a place in the history books (though it is not incredibly uncommon for patent purchases to include language that pushes the seller to imply the patent was the original property of the buyer)
The PTO generally retains the original patent owner in its public records. [I vaguely recall that there have been exceptions, especially after lawsuits. Can anyone offer us the details?]
MS likes to claim they 'innovated' technology when they simply purchased the full copyright rights to a product that embodies or utilizes a principle. We could be charitable and assume that, since they didn't create it, they did not understand the extent or limits of the innovation they purchased, and the meaning of 'buying a patent.
That would be an *extremely* charitable concession to MS, but excessively 'free and easy' sales of patents could increase the number of legitimate misunderstanding or disagreement over what was bought or sold. HOTLINE's license is an example, IIRC
4) Patent rights are not *that* dissimilar to many property rights in other types of property, so while it's possible to make arguments that make patent rights seem bizarre, they often aren't. You can buy a piece of land, for example, even though the 'original owner' obtained it by homestead or other grant of rights by the government (and not by actual purchase from the native Americans). Most private real estate in the US falls into this category
5) Many of the arguments made in this discussion are illusory (one must obtain a patent from the PTO before selling it) But other seemingly silly sounding arguments are not (it is possible to buy 'rights' in a patent before it is granted, but those rights can't be exercised with full weight until they actually materialize -- when the patent granted) In between is a vast grey area that is the realm of the courts -- it's often worthwhile to take a shot. Then again, in the current legal environment, what isn't that way?
6) You can build a device for personal use even if it is directly based on an existing patent. Just don't expect to ever sell it. I'll repeat that: YOU CAN COPY AND USE A PATENTED IDEA FOR YOUR OWN USE WITHOUT A LICENSE. IANAL, but that's been a longstanding principle (the cotton gin was an example: plantations often had a factory or blacksmith make them a private custom unit, rather than buy McCormick's commercial version) Don't count on the courts to stand beside you if a cyber-company targets you, though.
7) The problem with the "e-bay" analogy is that patent sales are not simple purchases with a large body of consostent prior law behind it. Patent and License sales (between companies) are usually custom negotiations.
A lot of companies have faltered when the critical patent belonged to one of the principles, and not the company itself. A lot of inventors have been unhappy to learn they no longer controlled the patent that belonged to their company -- including rights to derivative development.
__________
If you can go to bed, knowing you did a valuable thing today, you're very lucky. If you can't... it's not bedtime