Now, How Is It That You Accidentally File A Patent On Someone Else's Work?

from the just-wondering dept

Tue, Jan 30th 2007 2:47pm — Mike Masnick

Following the news that Microsoft had filed and then retracted a patent application that was clearly on work done by someone else (which they had publicly admitted to before the patent was filed), it seems that a few people are wondering exactly how someone goes about "accidentally" filing patents -- and, more to the point, wondering how many of Microsoft's other 3,808 patent filings from the past two years were also accidents? Of course, it's quite likely that most other such accidents won't be noticed until long after Microsoft has been granted the patent. The link above, from W.B. McNamara, also explains how this likely happened, with Microsoft IP "experts" scurrying around to various meetings and copying down whatever they hear that they think might be patentable -- a practice that some large companies have taken to using since stockpiling as many patents as possible (no matter how ridiculous they might be) is considered an important business strategy. Many companies also reward employees for patent applications (or granted patents), which would put in place incentives for the folks listed on this particular patent to skip over the part where they tell the patent attorney about how they simply copied the idea from a product that's been on the market for many years.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

5 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Cleverboy, 30 Jan 2007 @ 4:49pm

I think it can be a mistake...
It's what the corporate types might call a "happy accident". Hey, look how our system works without us intending to do it! Imagine all the great ideas we've patented with ne'er a second thought! I'm sure this is just a highlight letting us know how things roll for those who have the dough to spend averting "disaster" or promoyinh profit. This is why those decrying Verisign's guaranteed "WLS" said the big boys would corner every value domain name in the market without a second thought. Microsoft would much rather "accidentally" patent something, than be sued for 375 million dollars and have to prove "prior art". I'm sure they're chuckling as they send it to the shredder. "Whoops."
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Lutomes, 30 Jan 2007 @ 6:39pm

All in good defence
I think its ok to stockpile patents (even on things you don't invent) as long as you don't go trigger happy suing people.

Think of it this way, everyone knows at the moment you can patent things you didn't invent, or that are completely trivial. So the only way to stop that is to patent them first. Even if Microsoft's patent application is rejected for prior art - then that means nobody else can go and patent it (and the patent office may have let it slip through the system even with prior art).

Microsoft's patent defense includes the fact it applied for a patent and got rejected.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ambo, 30 Jan 2007 @ 8:02pm

New from Google - Patent Search
Hey Bill, you can use google to search for those pesky patents that are getting in your way before you release "your" new idea to the market.

http://www.google.com/patents
[ link to this | view in thread ]
koz, 31 Jan 2007 @ 4:21am

Unjustified speculation
"... which would put in place incentives for the folks listed on this particular patent to skip over the part where they tell the patent attorney about how they simply copied the idea ..."

I doubt any company patent schemes which would be sufficient to justify that kind of speculation (usually the reward to the employee is pathetic), and I expect they would all have some defense against it - e.g. making the employee pay back the award - after all it is an obvious thing to anticipate.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ttyy, 23 May 2009 @ 3:14am

6y6
nice, China printing industry developed this years, who can tell us? China based plastic injection molding services with low costs and supeior quality Steel and aluminum scaffolding for construction is a very useful tool.
[ link to this | view in thread ]