I realize that the actual text of the patent is not often fully disclosed, but when abstracts are so general you have to wonder.
In the United States, the patent office will release complete details of every granted patent to anybody who asks for it. The full text is available online free of charge; attached images can also be downloaded, but the interface might be clunky. Anybody can purchase a certified paper copy of every patent in its entirety.
In short, anything that a company wants to retain as a trade secret must never be filed as part of a patent. Trade secrets and patents are mutually exclusive.
The text and images contained in a granted patent are, in general, not subject to most copyright restrictions unless the patent applicant specifically asks for certain portions of the material to have a copyright notice attached; the copyright notice attached to any material inside a patent must grant everybody permission to produce verbatim facsimile copies of the copyrighted material as it appears in the patent document.
To update this nearly 3 year old story the case against Apple (some of the others have presumably taken a license?) is just now making it to trial. :err:
Judge Koh has decided that pejorative terms like patent troll, bandit, privateer and shakedown are banned from use by Apple counsel. She will allow the use of Non-Practicing Entity, Patent Assertion Entity and even "a company that doesn't make or sell anything".
Comments
I realize that the actual text of the patent is not often fully disclosed, but when abstracts are so general you have to wonder.
In the United States, the patent office will release complete details of every granted patent to anybody who asks for it. The full text is available online free of charge; attached images can also be downloaded, but the interface might be clunky. Anybody can purchase a certified paper copy of every patent in its entirety.
In short, anything that a company wants to retain as a trade secret must never be filed as part of a patent. Trade secrets and patents are mutually exclusive.
The text and images contained in a granted patent are, in general, not subject to most copyright restrictions unless the patent applicant specifically asks for certain portions of the material to have a copyright notice attached; the copyright notice attached to any material inside a patent must grant everybody permission to produce verbatim facsimile copies of the copyrighted material as it appears in the patent document.
Judge Koh has decided that pejorative terms like patent troll, bandit, privateer and shakedown are banned from use by Apple counsel. She will allow the use of Non-Practicing Entity, Patent Assertion Entity and even "a company that doesn't make or sell anything".
Good for her. I’m sure that’s legal¡