About 7 years ago I went through a patent harvesting exercise with my employer. It was 2005 and there was a big push in the software industry to patent everything they could. So they could be leveraged in licensing technologies between companies. The lawyer and my team submitted 14 patent applications and the waiting process began. About a year later I left the company and pretty much forgot about the patents. One day about 2 years later I got an email from one of the members of my former team. To my surprise, we had been award 4 patents. Over the next year 2 more patents were approved. Not notice from my former employer. I found out thanks to “Google Scholar” monitor (very cool tool that monitors your name and publications you have). Then silence; Nothing happen for 4 years and all of a sudden in the last 3 months 3 more patents were awarded.
I have lots of questions about the patent process. Maybe someone that has experience in this can give me some ideas.
- Why has it taken so long?
- Why does there seem to be some renewed interest in 7 year old patents.
- Do patent applications expire sometime?
- Is the high tech sue happy atmosphere today affecting number of patents filed and the time it takes to be reviewed? (Samsung and Apple for example)
With all of the renewed interest in my old patent applications, it reminds me of the old team I worked with, the cool technology we created, and the fun we had. So I guess the benefit of a long patent process might be nostalgia. I have lots of questions
DWP
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