Patent - Business Method Patents - Part II

In this second article on business method patents we're going to continue our discussion on what happens when two companies are battling it out for the same patent.

There are two ways that an Internet patent can be used. The first way is to use it offensively against a major competitor to help eat into their market share. The second way is to use it defensively against a major competitor who is threatening to sue based on one of their patents. Case studies show that most companies are less likely to go to court when the opposing company can show that it has a patent. Usually these companies agree to a truce by cross licensing each other's patents.

Here is an example of this.

Company A and Company B both sell tickets online. This includes services for exchanging unwanted tickets and also earning rewards for being a frequent purchaser. Company A happens to hold a patent on a method of exchanging tickets. Company B has a patent on a way of exchanging rewards points. Even though each company believes that the other company is infringing on their patent neither one goes to court over it. Instead they decide to cross license their patents so that each company can perform both services, exchanging tickets and rewards points.

So how is it determined who gets a patent? What happens when business A applies for a patent but business B can show that it was using the method for a year prior to filing? Business B can either stop the patent from going through right then and there or it can wait and invalidate the patent at a later time. The key to this whole procedure is that the use of business B's method MUST have been public knowledge prior to business A filing for a patent. If business B used the patent confidentially then business A will be granted the patent even though business B used the method first. However, in a 1999 amendment to this law, even though business A gets the patent, business B can still use the method without any penalty.

An example of this is as follows. Business A has been using a certain method of accounting for many years but never disclosed it to the general public. Company B, over the course of time and totally unaware that business A has already created this method, develops the method themselves and files for a patent. When company B finds out that company A has been using this accounting method they file a lawsuit against company A. Company B is granted their patent but company A is allowed to continue its use of the method without any penalty of law.

Just as a note. If company A had been using the method publicly before company B filed for the patent, the patent issued to company B would have been invalidated or possibly would have never been granted at all.

In the next article in this series we're going to discuss the legal requirements for getting a business method patent.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Patents

Your Personal Trademark

 

For novelist Tom Wolfe, it's a dazzling white suit, regardless of the weather or season.

For comedian George Burns, it was a cigar.

For basketball bad-boy Dennis Rodman, it's crazy hair.

For software developer Jackie Grubb, it's the color purple.

"It": a personal trademark that anchors your identity in the minds of your market.

"One day after I started my business a client introduced me by name and 'She is our computer consultant and her color is purple,'" says Grubb. "Soon afterwards, at business meetings, people began to chide me if I wasn't wearing purple.

"Since people were already associating me with the color, I renamed my business Plum Suite Solutions and commissioned a logo with a plum shape and color. Items in my wardrobe that were other colors had a session with purple dye so that my personal appearance and all my paper materials tie together."

Becoming memorable cuts the number of times people need to meet you before you become ensconced in their mental filing cabinet, and it increases the vividness of their recall.

Your trademark needn't be visual. It can be a particular combination of words that functions as a slogan. Reporter Tim Russert has trained his NBC compatriots -- and undoubtedly his TV audience -- to complete the trademark sentence for his show, "Remember, if it's Sunday... it's 'Meet the Press.'"

Other auditory trademarks might involve a particular kind of word, a tone of voice or a manner of speaking. During the last World Cup soccer championship, I loved hearing the way the Spanish sportscasters announced a goal, even though my Spanish comprehension is pretty terrible.

A motivational speaker I once ran across called himself "Tom Terrific" and told audiences that if anyone asked how he was and he didn't say, "Terrific!" he'd hand over $100. For someone who spoke on having a positive attitude, this verbal trademark made perfect sense. (He claimed that he'd had to pay up only a few times in many years.)

A kinesthetic personal trademark would stamp your identity in memory through a behavior or a gesture. I'm told that business guru Tom Peters is known for never standing still while on a speaking platform. Conductor Leonard Bernstein worked his way into the American consciousness through the vigor of his conducting and having to keep tossing his mane of hair out of his eyes. I understand he also carried a sharpened baton with him that he used to spear food instead of using a fork when eating in restaurants.

Don't take this identity-building tool to such an extreme that it undermines your credibility or sets you off as bizarre. For instance, in the business world and in politics, people take handshaking seriously. Developing an idiosyncratic physical greeting or abstaining from handshakes, as real estate mogul turned Presidential candidate Donald Trump did for supposed hygienic reasons, can mark you as eccentric in a bad sense. Otherwise, creating a personal trademark is smart, cost-effective marketing!

Marcia Yudkin is the author of the classic guide to comprehensive PR, "6 Steps to Free Publicity," now for sale in an updated edition at Amazon.com and in bookstores everywhere. She also spills the secrets on advanced tactics for today's publicity seekers in "Powerful, Painless Online Publicity," available from www.yudkin.com/powerpr.htm .

It Involves The In-ter-net...Dan Reinhold

This article may only be reproduced in its entirety, including the resource box and subscription information electronically or in print. A courtesy copy of yopur publication would be nice, too!

It Involves The In-ter-net...
By Dan Reinhold

There's a song by a group called the Bare Naked Ladies ( yes, I'm serious!) entitled “Never Do Anything". One line states, “I could make a mint, fill my pockets with more than lint, I'll give you a hint - it involves the Internet".

Never do anything. Involves the Internet.

Sound familiar?

When you're first exposed to the Internet, it's mindblowing and full of promises. Heck - if you're not “making money online" within five minutes of signing on, you must be some kind of vegetable. It's a big candy store, and everything looks sooooo good. If one program sounds really great, then a few dozen will make it happen even faster...right??

You're gonna do great big things, until...you don't. And you quit, with all those “Told ya sos" ringing in your ears.

What you don't know about the Internet when you first see it is that the things of real value have nothing to do with the endless stream of dazzling get-rich schemes and scams and financially fruitful flims and flams.

It's relationships.

That mouse at your fingertips can't help you succeed, friend. Wrong animal, although at least it's a mammal, too.

It can take a while and it can take some work. Finding good, real people online IS possible. That's the reason why WAHumor.com exists.

Did you really think a raving Inter-idiot like me could pull this off...alone???

Yeah, probably.

After lots of time, sweat ,tears, frustration, rage, doubt...and I do mean LOTS.

What else can you do?

Find a good place or two to talk to some good people.

We're making one right here at WAHumor.com...in our very own forum.

Now and in the future, you'll meet some amazing people at the WAHumor forum, many of whom helped me get here.

And you'll meet people like you with questions and concerns like yours - getting answers.

Ain't got no gurus here - it's just folks like me and you-hoo.

C'mon, let's go meet everybody...starting July 19.

WAHumor.com, the premier work at home humor website, officially launches on Saturday, August 2, 2003. The site pre-launches on July 19 when the forum goes live - be there for a special announcement you don't want to miss!
Subscribe today at www.WAHumor.com