APCO 1P50 Lecture Notes - Patent Infringement, Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, Reverse Engineering
7 Dec 2012
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Document Summary
Patent infringement: making authorized use of another"s patent, no specified limit to the monetary penalty. Software patent: protects feature, function, or process embodied in instructions executed on a comp, 20,000 software-related patents annually have been issued since early 80"s. Some experts think the number of software patents being granted inhibits new software development. Main goal of patents: to protect a person"s intellectual property. Before obtaining a software patent, do a patent search. Software patent institute is building a database of information. Software cross-licensing agreements: large software companies agree not to sue each other over patent infringements, small businesses have no choice but to license patents if they use them. Defensive publishing: alternative to filing for patents, company publishes a description of the innovation, establishes the idea"s legal existence as prior art, costs mere hundreds of dollars, no lawyers, fast. Patent troll firm: acquires patents with no intention of manufacturing anything; instead, licensing the patents to others.
