Patent Innovations-Berkeley-Lavian

3rd week 1

Patent EngineeringIEOR 190G

CET: Center for Entrepreneurship &Technology

3rd Week

Dr. Tal Lavian(408)-209-9112

Tlavian@cs.berkeley.edu 225A Bechtel

Mondays 4:00-5:45

Patent Innovations-Berkeley-Lavian

3rd week 2

Students Presentations

• Students’ presentations• Topics on patent engineering in litigated

cases • Some examples from last semester:

http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~tlavian/spring2008/patentEngineering.html

Patent Innovations-Berkeley-Lavian

3rd week 3

Students Presentations • Present in 10-15 min a patent litigation case • Case summary

• Parties, dates, history, issue in dispute, results • Engineering aspects of the dispute

• The patent(s), technology, product• Engineering aspects of the infringement • The engineering view vs. the legal view

• Any proposed design around

• The iPod touch screen patent – Need 4 volunteers

Patent Innovations-Berkeley-Lavian

3rd week 4

Recent Patent Verdicts & SettlementsOr – Why it is really important?

• Alcatel/ Lucent v. Microsoft. - (2007) - $1.5 Billion • NTP – Settled with RIM for $612M (plus $53M litigation plus verdict)• Intergraph – over $880M in settlement from patent litigation with Intel, HP

and others• Eolas v. Microsoft (2003). $506M Jury verdict• Immersion v. Sony (2004). $82M jury verdict plus royalties

– increased (2007) to $150M– vibration game controller - Microsoft settlement on $26

• Freedom Wireless v. BCGI (2005) $128 jury verdict• Finisar v DirectTV (2006). 103M (79+24)Jury verdict plus injunction • Tivo v. EchoStar (2006). $74M jury verdict plus injunction • Acacia - $60M in licensing revenue (2004-2—6)• Forgent - $100M in licensing revenue 2004-2006

Bell Labs Case - The Technology

Late 1980’s, Inventors James Johnston and Joseph Hall (Bell Labs, division of AT&T)

Quantizing noise – approximation of continuous range by values by relatively small set of discrete values.

Invented method and apparatus to produce quantized audio signal using interpolated scale factor.

V.V.

Advantage - Data compression – Same or similarsignal can be represented with less data

Bell Labs Patents

• Filed: Dec 1988 • Assignee: Bell Laboratories• U.S. Patent No. 5,341,457, Perceptual

Coding of Audio Signals, to Joseph L. Hall and James D. Johnston (Dec 1988)

• U.S. Reissue Patent No. RE39,080, Rate loop processor for perceptual encoder/decoder, to James D. Johnston (Dec 1988, Reissued Sep 1994)

Bell Labs MS Case

• In 2003, Lucent files suit against Gateway, Dell, and eventually Microsoft in U.S. District Court, San Diego, CA.

• Claim: Infringed two patents developed by Bell Labs in MP3 compression and playback within Microsoft Windows Media Player

• Sought 0.5% royalty of total Windows computers sold

The Case

• Microsoft claims:• Received license for MP3 technology from

Fraunhofer Institute (Bell Lab’s parent research organization) for flat $17 million.

• Loop processor not applicable for WMP application.

• 0.5% rate exorbitant! “Only one of 10,000 features” • The Proportioned Doctrine

..

The Results• Ruling agreed that patents were developed by

Bell Labs before joining with Fraunhofer to create MP3

• Rights to patents exceeded value of $17 million paid for license

• February 22, 2007, Alcatel-Lucent awarded record $1.5 billion in damages from Microsoft. Jury unable to find ‘willful’ infringement for $4.5 billion damages.

• August 6, 2007, Microsoft granted retrial. Verdict overturned based on insufficient evidence by Judge Rudi Brewster.

..

PatentEng-Berkeley-Lavian 3rd week 10

Patent History• Created by Congress in 1790

– “…to promote the progress of science and the useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.”

• Article 1, Section 8• July 31, 1790 – 1st Patent

– Samuel Hopkins patents potash– Cost : $4.00

• Reviewed by Cabinet Members– Thomas Jefferson – Secretary of State– Henry Knox – Secretary of War– Edmund Randolph – Attorney General– George Washington – President

www.uspto.gov, www.ipo.org

PatentEng-Berkeley-Lavian 3rd week 11

More Patent History• 3 Patents Awarded in 1790

– First patent law enacted• 1802 – US Patent and Trademark Office

Created– Responsibility of granting patents/registering

trademarks• Atomic Energy Act of 1954

– Excludes nuclear purposes/atomic weapons• American Inventors Protection Act (1999)

– Most recent revision of patent laws• New Legislation debate – 2008-9

www.uspto.gov, www.ipo.org

PatentEng-Berkeley-Lavian 3rd week 12

US Constitution

• Rights are derived directly from US constitution, Article 1, section 8– granting congress the power to promote the

progress of science and useful arts by securing for a limited time to authors and inventors the exclusive rights to their respective writings and discoveries

PatentEng-Berkeley-Lavian 3rd week 13

What is a Patent?

• A form of intellectual property• A grant of property right to an inventor by the

government• Prevents the invention from others for the duration

of the patent • In return, the inventor must fully disclose the

details of the invention to the public

PatentEng-Berkeley-Lavian 3rd week 14

What is a Patent? (Cont.)

• Right to Exclude the Making, Using, Selling , Offering for Sale or Importation of a Specified Invention– Limited Time (Typically 20 Years from date

of filing with USPTO)– Limited Geographic Territory (issuing

country)• Monopoly awarded by the Government for

sharing the Invention with the public

PatentEng-Berkeley-Lavian 3rd week 15

Protecting the Idea

• Protecting the idea, not the embodiment• Allowed to claim broader than the physical

embodiment • Protection:

– Limited rights during the life of the patent • Filing to end• Issue to end

PatentEng-Berkeley-Lavian 3rd week 16

What can be patented?• “Everything under the sun made by man.”

– Products: things– Processes: ways to make things– Methods: ways to do things– Improvements: better things

• Defined Classes– Article of Manufacture– Machine– Composition– Process

• Some more:– Business Methods – Services – Software

PatentEng-Berkeley-Lavian 3rd week 17

Criteria – Legal Standards• Novelty

– Does not exist in the prior art– Not previously disclosed to public– OK if Modification/Improvement of an existing product/process, or use of something “old” in new/different way

• Usefulness - Utility - Performs a useful function• Non-obviousness

– Non-trivial - It would not have been obvious to one skilled in the art to combine multiple items in the public domain to arrive at or show the invention – Not Engineer’s normal sense of “obviousness”!

• Enabled

PatentEng-Berkeley-Lavian 3rd week 18

What Is Not Patentable

• Laws of nature (wind, gravity)• Physical phenomena (sand, water)• Abstract ideas (mathematics, a

philosophy) – Algorithms per se

• Anything not useful, Novel and Non-Obvious (perpetual motion machine)

• Inventions which are offensive to public morality or designed for an illegal activity

PatentEng-Berkeley-Lavian 3rd week 20

Statutory Bars • Patent rights to an invention will be lost if:

– The invention is used publicly– The invention is sold or offered for sale– The invention is published in a printed

publication or a patent – Before the filing of a patent application

• (more than one year in U.S.)

PatentEng-Berkeley-Lavian 3rd week 21

Prior Art

• Information prior to the date of a patent application

• Existing relevant technology• Can be your own technology or acts

PatentEng-Berkeley-Lavian 3rd week 22

Foreign Standards fro Prior Art

• “Absolute novelty” • The invention must not have been disclosed

or available to the public at any time before the filing of the application

PatentEng-Berkeley-Lavian 3rd week 26

Utility Patents

• What is patentable?

• New and useful…– Process– Machine– Manufacture– Composition of matter– Improvements

• What is unpatentable?– Prior existing technology

PatentEng-Berkeley-Lavian 3rd week 27

Utility Patent Types

• Two types of US Utility Patents– Provisional application– Non-Provisional application

• Continuation• Divisional• CIP• PCT International

PatentEng-Berkeley-Lavian 3rd week 28

Other Types of Patents

• Design Patents: are issued for– Novel, non-obvious – Ornamental design in an article of

manufacture – In other words, for its appearance– The term of a design patent is 14 years from

the date of grant• Plant Patent

– new or discovered asexually reproduced plant

PatentEng-Berkeley-Lavian 3rd week 29

Types of Patents

Type Is for Term #s

Utility Function, use 20 years 6,214,874

Design Appearance 14 years D202,331

Plant Asexually reproduced 20 years PP10123