Apps How not to develop patent protected ideas?

helleye · Feb 24, 2013

Hello all,

I'm thinking about developing an android application. But I am worried a lot about patents and whether the ideas I have are patent protected or not. So how do you handle this?
My concerns are bigger lately after reading about a lot of patent wars and all I want is to develop some useful application, hopefully unique and to earn money from that. But how do I (easily) find out if my idea is already protected? And will it be a problem if I start selling application which later turns out that infringes someone's idea or I can somehow make an agreement with the patent holder (after I find him/her - which could be before or after I have released my application)?

GeorgeN · Feb 25, 2013

I wouldn't worry about it at this stage, if your application is popular enough that someone tries to bring a lawsuit, you will probably be able to afford a lawyer.

In the mean time, don't go trying to do a search to see if your ideas are patented. If you are genuinely unaware of any patients you infringe, then you can make a reasonable claim that the patent is obvious to an expert in the field (at least 2 people thought of it).

But if they see you have previously read the patent and knowingly infringed it (even if you didn't think it covered you idea), then they will likely throw the book at you.

StevenHu · Feb 26, 2013

If you really have a patentable idea, then document it carefully, take it to a patent attorney, and have him do the correct paperwork to send it in. He'll tell you what else he'll need to make the paperwork complete.

If it has been patented already, or if it is not patentable, then U.S. Patent Office will reject your patent and show you why.

This is what happened to me.

helleye · Mar 2, 2013

GeorgeN said:
I wouldn't worry about it at this stage, if your application is popular enough that someone tries to bring a lawsuit, you will probably be able to afford a lawyer.

In the mean time, don't go trying to do a search to see if your ideas are patented. If you are genuinely unaware of any patients you infringe, then you can make a reasonable claim that the patent is obvious to an expert in the field (at least 2 people thought of it).

But if they see you have previously read the patent and knowingly infringed it (even if you didn't think it covered you idea), then they will likely throw the book at you.

That sounds really good to me

StevenHu said:
If you really have a patentable idea, then document it carefully, take it to a patent attorney, and have him do the correct paperwork to send it in. He'll tell you what else he'll need to make the paperwork complete.

If it has been patented already, or if it is not patentable, then U.S. Patent Office will reject your patent and show you why.

This is what happened to me.

I don't live in USA (I just have updated my profile) and here software is not patentable. At the moment, I wish I would not need to restrict the possible market for my application to just a few countries (where software is not patentable), but if there is no other possibility maybe I could try that too, even though I am not sure how can I really do it.

Thank you for your comments, they make me more motivated to start developing an application on my own.

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Apps How not to develop patent protected ideas?

helleye

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helleye

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