Auction Intellectual property

December 6th, 2007

The first intellectual property rights auction in Europe is to be held in Munich in May 2007

At a hotel in Munich Webasto, a German auto parts maker plans to do something nearly unthinkable: license the rights to one of its best-selling products - a roof-top solar panel for cars and trucks - to the highest bidder at a public auction.

For a decade, Webasto, based in the Munich suburb of Stockdorf, has spent millions negotiating the sale of licenses for its vehicle solar panels to automakers like Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Opel, Volkswagen and Audi. But it is now set to sell nonexclusive rights at the first intellectual property, or IP, auction in Europe. Organizers of the auction hope it will open a new sales channel to speed the transfer of intellectual property in a cheaper, more transparent marketplace.

“The knowledge society is becoming more and more important,” said Manfred Petri, of IP Auctions, the Hamburg company that is organizing the event and that is owned by a group of European patent lawyers, IP assessors and private investors. “The values being created by intellectual property are becoming too large to trade in a clandestine market.”

Global sales of IP surged with the rise of the digital economy, with annual transactions rising from just $10 billion in 1990 to $200 billion this year, according to Petri.

The auction has attracted the interest of 84 sellers who are trading licenses and patents for technologies ranging from industrial coating machinery to treatments for psoriasis and skin cancer.

The minimum value of the IP being auctioned in Munich is more than €5 million, or $6.7 million, according to organizers. A third of the sellers are large companies like Bayer, Rolls-Royce Deutschland and ABB; a third are individuals; the rest are universities and research institutes.

Many sellers are hoping for a new sales channel for IP, which is costly to market through the traditional method of hiring patent attorneys to negotiate with potential buyers. Webasto is hoping to get a seven-digit sum for the license to its sun-roof solar panel, which generates electricity to ventilate parked cars on hot summer days.

“Climate change is a very big topic right now and we are approaching this auction with that in mind,” said the director of intellectual property services for Webasto.

Smaller sellers, who often lack the clout to obtain large IP royalty fees in negotiations with corporations, are also hoping for better profits. That includes Ipal, an organization that markets patents developed by researchers at universities and teaching hospitals. In Munich, Ipal is auctioning rights to inositolized phospholipids, a substance developed by researchers at Charité Hospital that has shown promise in treating skin ailments.

To join the auction, Ipal is paying a €1,000 entry fee, which is a small fraction of the normal cost, said Marcel Tilmann, a manager at Ipal. “An auction brings together buyers and sellers in one room,” said Tilmann. “That means that there will be pressure to come to an agreement, which is often half the battle.”

A Chicago company, Ocean Tomo, held the first IP auction in the world last year in San Francisco. An Ocean Tomo auction in April netted a record $11.4 million for sellers, including the largest single fee paid at such an auction, $3 million. Ocean Tomo plans to hold its first European auction on June 1 in London.

“The auction is a unique platform; it creates a sense of urgency. It is appropriate not just for patents and licenses but for brands and catalogues.

But Lothar Steiling, chief patent counsel at Bayer, who is also president of the German Association of Intellectual Property Experts, said auctions would probably fill a niche only for smaller IP sales, with larger sales remaining subject to protracted one-on-one negotiations.

But even Bayer is willing to experiment. On Tuesday, it will auction off a license for electro chromic systems, a nanotechnology used to tint windows and enable car mirrors to be used as digital displays. Besides royalties, Steiling said Bayer wants to cut the cost of maintaining 80,000 patents.

“If this auction is successful,” Steiling said, “we will be back.”

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    patent new invention

    December 6th, 2007

    A patent is a right granted to an individual or group which permits the grantee the ability to prevent others from making, using, or selling the invention described in the patent. A patent can be sold, or the grantee may give others permission to use the invention.

    There are three main types of patents: utility patents, design patents, and plant patents.

    An invention means a new product or process involving an inventive step and capable of industrial application.

    New invention is defined as any invention or technology which has not
    been anticipated by publication in any document or used in the country or elsewhere in the world before the date of filing of patent application with complete specification. (The subject matter has not fallen in public domain or that it does not form part of the state of the art).

    The criteria for an invention to be patentable are,
    (1) An invention must be novel
    (2) Has an inventive step and
    (3) Is capable of industrial application.

    A novel invention is one, which has not been published, in the prior art. (Prior art means everything that has been published, presented or otherwise disclosed to the public on the date of patent). The prior art includes documents in foreign languages published in any format in any country of the world.

    For an invention to be judged as novel, the disclosed information should not be available in the ‘prior art’. This means that there should not be any prior disclosure of any information contained in the application for patent anywhere in the public domain, either written or in any other form, or in any language before the date on which the application is first filed i.e. the ‘priority date’.

    Inventive step is a feature of an invention that involves:

    At least one part of the invention should be in an inventive step having economic significance making the invention non obvious to a person skilled in art.

    An invention is capable of industrial application when it can be used in at least one field of activity and it can be reproduced with the same characteristics as many times as necessary.

    On the basis of the above criteria an invention can be patented.

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    india patent invention

    December 6th, 2007

    A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a patentee for a fixed period of time in exchange for a disclosure of an invention. There are three types of patents namely utility, plant, and design patent.

    Inventions are of two types - patentable inventions and non-patentable inventions.

    The rules for Patentable inventions are as follows:

    An invention should not be related to the natural laws.

    An invention should not cause immorality or which causes serious prejudice to human, animal or plant life or health or to the environment.

    It may be a discovery of a scientific principle or the formulation of an abstract theory or discovery of any living thing or non-living substances occurring in nature.

    The mere discovery of a new form of a known substance which does not result in the enhancement of the known efficacy of that substance or the mere discovery of any new property or new use for a known substance or of the mere use of a known process, machine or apparatus is not patentable unless such known process results in a new product or employs at least one new reactant.

    A substance obtained by a mere admixture resulting only in the aggregation of the properties of the components thereof or a process for producing such substance is not patentable.

    The mere arrangement or re-arrangement or duplication of known devices each functioning independently of one another in a known way is not patentable

    A method of agriculture or horticulture is not patentable.

    Any process for the medicinal, surgical, curative, prophylactic diagnostic therapeutic or other treatment of human being or any process for a similar treatment of animals to render them free of disease or to increase their economic value is not patentable.

    Plants and animals in whole or any part other than microorganisms, but including seeds, varieties and species and essentially biological processes for production or propagation of plants and animals can be patented.

    A literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or any other aesthetic creation, including cinematographic works and television productions can be patented.

    An invention related to atomic energy cannot be patented.

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    find patent and trademark attorneys

    December 6th, 2007

    Patents, trademarks and copyrights are areas that fall under intellectual property law because they are all considered intellectual property. In addition to there being attorneys that specialize in the broad intellectual property law area, there are also trademark attorneys, patent attorneys, and copyright lawyers that specifically deal with patents, trademarks and copyrights.

    These patent attorneys, trademark attorneys and copyrights attorneys can help you with legal issues surrounding the rights of ownership of patents, trademarks and copyrights; the application or registration of patents, trademarks and copyrights; licensing and transferring of rights; and the legal or illegal use of any of this intellectual property. The following are general descriptions of patents, trademarks and copyrights:

    * Trademark
    A trademark can be a logo, name, symbol, or device used to differentiate a product or service of one trader (or commercial entity) from that of another-brand identity. Trademark protection lasts for 10 years after registration, and is renewable.

    * Patent
    A patent is the grant of right to exclude others from making, using, selling, or importing an invention or discovery, including new and improved products and processes. Patents can be registered in foreign countries, last for 20 years and are renewable. But, if the patent expires, the exclusive rights to make, use, sell or import the invention or discovery is lost.

    * Copyright
    A Copyright is protection granted to authors of original authorship such as literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, and computer software, as well as performing artists in their performances, producers of phonograms in their recordings, and broadcasters in their radio and television programs. Example: The creators of your favorite music CD, movie, or computer game have a copyright on their work. Copyrights last for the life of an author plus 50 years.

    Because patents, trademarks and copyrights all fall under the broad area of intellectual property law, if you plan on obtaining a trademark, patent or copyright it is in your best interest to consult with a qualified trademark attorney, patent attorney or copyright lawyers to help you properly file for protection of your intellectual property. Find an attorney that’s right for you and your situation.

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    India Patent Application

    November 27th, 2007

    A Patent Application is a request pending at a patent office for the grant of a patent for the invention described and claimed by that application. An application consists of a description of the invention, together with official forms and correspondence relating to the application. The term patent application is also used to refer to the process of applying for a patent. 

    The process of obtaining the grant of a patent begins with the preparation of a specification describing the invention. That specification is filed at a patent office for examination and ultimately a patent for the invention described in the application is either granted or refused. 

    These are the following applications filed in

    India 

    • Ordinary application
    • Convention application
    • PCT international application
    • PCT National phase application
    • Application for Patent of addition
    • Divisional Application

     

    Ordinary application 

    An application for patent made in the Patent office without claiming any Priority of application made in a convention country or without any reference to other application under process in the office is called an ordinary application. 

    Convention Application  

    When an applicant comes to the patent office with an application claiming a priority date based on a similar application filed in one of the convention country, it is called a convention application. 

     PCT International application 

    PCT is an international filing system for patents in which the applicant gains an international filing date in all the designated countries conferring the late entry (up to 31 months) to the national offices without affecting the priority date. This is a simple and economical procedure for those applicants seeking protection for the inventions in many countries 

    PCT-National Phase Application An international application made according to Patent Cooperation Treaty designating

    India can enter national phase within 31 months from the international filing date. This application filed before the Controller in the Indian patent office claiming the priority and international filing date is called PCT National Phase application. Application for Patent of Addition  

    When an applicant feels that he has an invention, which is a slight modification on the invention for which he has already applied for/has patent in

    India the applicant can go for a patent of addition. The only benefit he gets is that there is no need to pay separate renewal fee for the patent of addition during the term of themain patent.  

    Divisional application When the application made by an applicant claims more than one invention, the applicant on his own request or to meet the official objection raised by the Controller of Patents may divide the application and file two or more applications as applicable for each of the inventions. This type of application divided out of the parent one is called divisional application. The priority date for all the divisional applications will be same as that claimed by the parent application (Ante-dating).

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