Friday, August 09, 2013

How to read a patent in 60 seconds

Dan Shapiro » How to read a patent in 60 seconds:
"Find the independent claims, and read them
The claims are the only part of the patent that have any actual legal enforceability.  While they’re still a pain to read, they’re forced to be one sentence so at least they’re relatively short (modulo the occasional run-on sentences half a page long).  They can be wicked difficult to parse in detail, but a skim will get you pointed in the right direction. This page also offers a decent primer."


  • Ask Patents
    Ask Patents is based on technology of "Stack Overflow",
    that is by far the best resource for software developers questions and answers.
    Could "Ask Patents" become similar value?

  • Victory Lap for "Ask Patents" by Joel Spolsky
    Here is how it was used to "defeat" a Microsoft patent application by using Microsoft's own "prior art"

  • The Patent Protection Racket by Joel Spolsky
    The fastest growing industry in the US right now, even during this time of slow economic growth, is probably the patent troll protection racket industry. Lawsuits surrounding software patents have more than tripled since 1999.
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