Google Extends Patent Search To Prior Art 81
mikejuk writes "As well as buying up patents to defend itself against the coming Apple attack on Android, Google is also readying its own technology. It has extended its Patent Search facility to include European patents and has added a Prior Art facility. The new Prior Art facility seems to be valuable both to inventors and to the legal profession. In order to be granted a patent the inventor has to establish that it is a novel idea — and in the current litigious environment companies and their lawyers might want to show that patents should not have been granted."
Doesn't Matter (Score:5, Insightful)
In order to be granted a patent the inventor has to establish that it is a novel idea — and in the current litigious environment companies and their lawyers might want to show that patents should not have been granted.
Can someone explain how this matters when google is 1) Not the patent office, and 2) the courts blatantly ignore prior art anyway?
It seems to me that you can patent just about anything now with the right wording and money.
I am filing a patent on "Upright Locomotion for Bipedal Hominids using Two Appendages."
You know how that ends... (Score:0, Insightful)
...something like this. [youtube.com]
That's a good strategy (Score:5, Insightful)
Pssh nice prior art dude (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why bother? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Pssh nice prior art dude (Score:5, Insightful)
what could possibly go wrong (Score:5, Insightful)
Let Google engineers go do Prior Art Search, or lookup prior patents and start developing in those area.
Even better is that Google keep a history of such search results performed by their engineers.
When they are sued for patent infringement, and asked to handover the search results, it would be fun to watch.
As an engineer, the advice I have always received, "Do not do any patent or prior art search". Leave that to the lawyer. Avoid getting tainted. Avoid doing what Samsung been caught doing.
Re:Doesn't Matter (Score:4, Insightful)
It's not that the courts ignore prior art, but that they defer to the patent office. If the courts have to determine whether a patent is valid, what's the point of having a patent office? The proper place to challenge the validity of a patent is at the Patent Office, first, and then the courts if you think you might get lucky.