Is Bullying and trolling tyranny

Many of us have walked through that long dark corridor with insults being hauled at you, food hurled at your face, and for no good reason. If the idea is to shame you, I would stand by it but then again why shame me if you are already bullying me for no good reason? I guess that’s what runs into the young minds of young bullying victims as they question their existence. 

If you ask a child-bully why he/she does what he does, well they wouldn’t be to forward about what is going on in their lives and they wouldn’t give a reason formidable enough to accuse their sufferers for steering the offender actions towards the victim.

I guess sometimes we can’t leave our pasts behind, especially if you are a smart inventor, though operating low on funds. When you create and invent a new idea, am sure you are well informed about the patent process and you will advance to protect your intellectual property with a lawyer, however it gets trying when faced with a patent suit without millions of dollars to facilitate legal fees.

The overall awareness of the value of intellectual property has increased with a corresponding increase in patent filing, lawsuits and licensing.

In response to the increasing perceived value of intellectual property and patents, particularly in the world of electronics, two distinct types of patent predators have emerged; patent trolls and patent bullies.

Who is a patent troll

A patent troll is somebody who tries to make a lot of money from a patent that they are not practicing and have no intention of practicing and in most cases never practiced, (Peter Detkin, former assistant general counsel at Intel, quoted in Trolling for Dollars, The Recorder, July 30, 2001). Generally they are not inventors, they’re entrepreneurs or finance people.” The majority of patent lawsuits in the United States today are filed by entities that don’t make products. Their business model is based on extracting money from those who do make the products.”

The trolls are spoken ill of because of the perception that their legal tactics are more likely to hold back innovation than spur it on.

They acquire patents for the sole purpose of collecting licensing fees. Usually, patent troll companies produce no actual products. Ironically, those who defame patent trolls often practice this same patent monetization strategy with their own patents that cover technology, from discontinued businesses or acquired businesses, which their company no longer practices.

These trolls date back more than a hundred years for example, the Selden patent (US549, 160), with an invention date of 1877 and an issue date of 1895, covered a few of the basic concepts of the automobile. The inventor of record, George Selden, was a patent lawyer. No Selden automobile was ever built. Selden’s patent holding company collected royalties of between 2.5% and 5% from almost all US car manufacturers until 1911 when the patent was ruled invalid. This example elaborates how a company might invent or purchase a patent and sit on it as it wheels in money from licenses for the idea.

The Patent troll’s “Nothing out of the” behavior

Patent troll licensing strategies are usually quite simple – generate the maximum money in the shortest time at the least expense. Troll organizations purchase or acquire control of patents from single inventors, small corporations or bankrupt companies.

Desirable patents are ones that cover an invention that is used in a large market with many players.

Many trolls start with a shotgun approach that is distributing claims in allegation letters to numerous manufactures, suing opportunistically in hopes that an imperfect legal system will rule in their favour.

License fees may be set initially at a low level to induce companies to settle without performing sufficient due diligence – as the due diligence may be more costly than the settlement. However, if a troll can present a stronger argument that is supported by claim charts, then the license fee is set higher, at the threshold of pain for a target organization. This maximizes the troll’s return while causing the potential licensee to consider whether it will be cheaper to take an early license that may cost much less than the legal fees required for a defense. Once the troll organization established a litigation fund, it can up the ante by filing lawsuits listing large numbers of defendants or targeting one or two highly profitable market leaders. However, despite the bullying and troll game being ruthless in the business world, it can be a good business strategy.

Let’s talk about the Patent Bully

Patent bullies are corporations with large intellectual property holdings that seek strict enforcement of their patents in the market place. They create assertive licensing campaigns to enforce their patent rights by using intimidation and their size as leverage. Their strategic objectives may simply be revenue generation, but they more often employ strategies to protect a market they dominate or to raise a competitor’s cost base. This activity is a legitimate means for large corporations with huge R&D investments in technology to obtain a return on their investment and establish an even playing field.

Today, almost any business that uses basic technology is a possible target of trolls. In some cases, trolls are forcing business owners to choose between paying employees and paying legal fees

Why it is necessary to hire an attorney to file a patent application for a business

Hello! Every one, just wanted to share some ideas on whether it’s right to hire an attorney to file a patent application.

Who is an attorney?

An attorney is a person admitted to practice law in at least one jurisdiction and authorized to perform criminal and civil functions on behave of client. An attorney helps aclient to draft a will or filling a law suit on behalf of a client.

You may choose to develop your business idea without hiring an attorney in an attempt to cut cost associated to it, let’s say when it comes to legal matters, you decide to a do it yourself approach works sometimes; but other times, it’s risky. 

Though the United States Patent and Trade Mark Office will not require a patent a patent attorney to file a patent, there are many reasons that may necessitate the need of a patent attorney. However, most business people have limited budgets and decide sometimes to do it by themselves. 

According to Denis G. Bayer, and Hoppe and Mitchell in Youngstown, Ohio, “technology is the key to providing greater access to legal services”. They came up with a view that online self services tools are helpful and often safe for basics such as general contracts, service agreements and nondisclosure agreements. This can help you save money by completing some forms directly on government websites such as reserving a business name or rather getting a tax ID, says Bayer. 

However, it’s wise and right to hire a patent attorney when developing business idea, since lawyers understand legal and tax implications and can tailor their approach to your specific needs.

Well!  My opinion on hiring an attorney to file a business patent application is based on the argument below;

Any upcoming entrepreneur should have in mind that stating up any business is associated with many risks, where some documents used during the process need to be translated and interpreted by an attorney who understands legal procedures. A legal shield essentially crowd sources costs incurred by business owners   to basically make legal services affordable. It further supports the daily running and growth of the business, that’s, developing Human resource policies, and reviewing vendor contracts and drafting letters to pay clients.

On the other side, there are dangers associated to filling a patent application without a patent attorney as highlighted below;

Ø  There is a possibility of not providing enough disclosure of the invention to permit the use of the provisional’s filing date to the benefit of non provisional

Ø  Much reliance on provisional filling to protect your rights while publicly disclosing additional inventions or enhancement after filling.

Ø  You can make inaccurate statements like incorrectly characterizing prior inventions of other

However much it is necessary to file provisional application without hiring an attorney, it is always important to measure the benefits and risks involved with doing so. Well! You may luck funds now but to protect your Intellectual property will help you make good money down the road.

Filling Patent Application

Coming up with an invention or new idea is requires considerable time and effort. To capitalize on the benefits of this effort, you will definitely have to protect the invention through patent. This is because you will have sole ownership of the invention thereby preventing anyone from using it and at the same time gain a competitive advantage in the market.

Where to apply for patents

While seeking patent protection, you will either choose to apply for international patent by filling a single international patent application that will protect your invention in a large number of countries at the same time. This is called hitting two birds using one stone in English. Alternatively one can chose to file separate national or regional patent applications. 

The fact remains that either you're filling an international or nation/regional patent application, the patent will be will be granted under control of the national patent office. This therefore means that if you choose to file an international patent application, you will have to do it through the national patent office.

Irrespective of whether it is an international or national patent application, patent search has to be performed so as to verify if your invention is patentable or not. This is done in different languages and technical fields so as to establish if the invention is unique (new) or has already been patented.  If a patent search is performed and it is identified that there are no patent documents related to your invention are published, the patent search authority used will then write an opinion on your invention's possibility of receiving patent. The patent office will then use this information for processing your patent.

Languages to file your patent application

Whether it is an international or national patent application, there is no uniform language that is generally accepted for patent application. The fact is that a patent application can be filed in any language depending on the patent office being used. The Japan patent office will require it to be filled in Japanese; China patent office will require patent application in Chinese while in USA, it will be required to be submitted in English. So the issue of language remains that the patent application will be filed in the language accepted by the patent office in question.

However, if filling an international patent application through the national office, it will be required that the application be filled in a language supported by international search authority (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish). If your documents are in a language not supported, a translation of these documents into a language accepted will be mandatory

Is a Patent of a benefit to business?

A patent is right or protection granted to an inventor by a country, allowing the inventor to exclude others from making, using or selling his or her invention in that country during the life of the patent, “Joe Hadzima, senior lecturer MIT School of management”.

What is business?

It’s all about getting things you want to do, your passionate beliefs in life, the goals and objectives you desire to achieve in future. Business makes things get done and it’s an effect to every part of societies and communities. So all what you need to do, the better understanding of what business is can help you to attain all your endeavors in life.

It is a tricky idea to keep aside of business news and you don’t be aware of the common contested patent litigations nowadays. So for example if you have a patent on a jug to hold milk, and I have a patent on a handle for a jug, probably I can prevent you from putting a handle on a milk cup and you can prevent me from attaching a cup on a handle and Currently Samsung and Apple have been fighting over whether Samsung infringed a patent protecting the popular iPhone design.

Innovation and time difference of patents

The great gain of a patent and protection of patent right is enriched in the constitution, that grants inventor the exclusive rights to his or her discoveries in order to promote the progress of business and the aim was that we should all benefit from the discoveries of other peoples’ innovations. To promote your business investments, you as an inventor of a new business idea must ensure that you have been granted the exclusive rights to manufacture, use, and sell or import those products for a specified period of time.

There is need to be aware of  obtaining a written “non encroachment” opinion from an independent lawyer before introducing a product will help to overcome a unruly contravention claim. Many companies have seen a patent portfolio as an imperative issue to business even if they have not strategically planned the program of enforcement litigations and believe that having a patent portfolio allows them to settle claims against them by cross licensing. 

 

Patents in business are vital in letting one to allow someone else to manufacture his or her invention on agreed terms or take legal action against people who may be using your invention without seeking you permission as we put in mind that business is an undertaking of your beliefs, protecting it more essential and if dealing with business partners, they should first seek permission before producing the related products. Especially if you are dealing with innovations that solve a long a bigger problem, they should be given a greater financial reward by way of longer patent terms than those that solve smaller less worrying problems.

For example the inventor of the cure of diabetes may receive a patent lasting 15 years, as the one who develops software applications saving people from computer mouse clicking as much as many times when buying diabetes drugs online may receive a patent lasting 8 years. We have to recognize that the patents granted to us for our business progresses are vital and valuable, and people are enormously rewarded for their new inventions and innovations in business.

For you want to protect the way your business idea works then patenting is the best solution and the appropriate option to be taken.

Gateless Gate! Patents getting lost in translation

Back in high school, my passion of French and learning it as my second official language came to quite a tragic short term demise when I change school for the next four years and limited to the option of Arabic and German. As a 12 year old, I did not know that these languages ever existed in the country’s school system, in addition to the little workings of the young minds I never thought I could take up Arabic and see myself on official and business meets with Saudi Arabia Royalties or Morocco or Egypt. But I was aware of the fancy I would like to own came from Germany. Seated at the back of my class, my brain always went numb, mostly terrified and sweating plasma never knowing when the teacher might pick on you. Seating quiet and looking observant and attentive probably was the wrong move to try and avoid the tutor’s attention and I was counted down the time as the clock ticked down till the bell rung.

I had a throwback moment reminiscing on those memories as I was digging into research on translations gone bad. With no intent to pass judgment or insult, but these are comically bad translations and I emphasize comically! Some of the translations turn to sound like koans in Zen Buddhism, these are phrases given to the novice monastic to brood over for years until they prove to the master they have grasped the depth of the statement.

A few examples of such translation epic fails include the Pepsi Original: “Come alive with Pepsi!” which was translated “Pepsi bring your ancestors back from the dead!” in Chinese. When Hillary Clinton started her term as Secretary of State by giving the Russians a button saying that it expressed her deepest feelings about them, unfortunately, rather than saying ‘reset’ as intended, it was apparently translated into the Russian equivalent of ‘Your Momma.’  

About patent translation

Researching original works involves searching through patents and if / when you come across foreign patents that describe something similar to your idea, you will need to have them translated. In patent translation, the translations should be faithful to the original and

If the translator chooses slightly different words than those used in the original patent, either through carelessness or with best intention to make the target text flow smoothly, you may get the wrong idea all the same.

The most vital aspect of protection of intellectual property internationally is an accurate translation. A translation error can be a huge significance that if one word is left out of a list – and if that word just happens to be the focus of the invention at hand – you will believe that your idea is novel when in fact, it is not. A patentee or firm should evaluate a professional translator against a number of criteria such as:

-          Sufficient experience in patent translation

-          Necessary technical background

-          References from satisfied clients

That’s just the beginning because performing a good translation requires more like how the translator works on translations and the procedures they follow. The number of times the translator will proofread before the translation is finalized. 

This criterion is an answer to curbing patent translations riddled with errors even without being a native speaker in the related respective language.