[TowerTalk] Patentability (OT)

[Paul Christensen]

> > BTW, the process is *very* expensive. It costs about $20,000 for each
U.S.
> > patent (mostly attorney's fees), and as much as $200,000 more to broadly
> > protect the invention internationally (mostly translation fees and more
> > attorney's fees.)

Not for the majority of patents.  Patents that derive from the genetic and
chemical engineering disciplines can be this expensive and these high costs
are oftentimes attributed to the attorney's work in narrowing or broadening
the scope of the claims in order to circumvent interference issues.   And
more often than not, a patent attorney will out-source the prior art search
since international patents must also be searched.

The validity of any patent stands or falls on its claims, not the
specifications.  In addition to the prior art, other factors that affect a
patent's validity are: 1) obviousness, 2) novelty, and 3) utility.   The
test for obviousness rests on whether one who is skilled in the prior art
would consider the idea as obvious.  And the idea is not treated alone: If
one who is skilled in the prior art can conceive the idea by COMBINING prior
art references, then the idea is obvious and fails validity.  It's also
important to note that just because one obtains a patent, does not
necessarily mean that the patent is valid.  It can fail for lack of any of
the above elements.

To real us back on topic, take a look at the claims within the N4XM
transmatch patent.  I believe that if anyone really wanted to attack the
validity of his claims, there would be little difficulty in winning.

-Paul, W9AC



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