Green Bay Patent Attorneys & Lawyers

What Are Essential Patents?

Essential patents, or standard-essential patents (SEPs), are patents, such as a software patent, that a company owns and shares with other companies to create a technology standard. Think of an essential patent as one part of a future product that would benefit an industry. Usually, these patents become licensed to standards organizations or companies with the same goal.

When essential patents are licensed, an agreement exists among all those with stake in the patent.

• The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) often gets essential patents from companies. The IEEE then uses their skills to make new products. The deal between this standards organization and the patent holder is that the essential patent can't be used on its own. Instead, the patent must be used to create something all people intere

...

Updated November 27, 2020:

Patents: What Are They?

Understanding how to patent something is a part of knowing how to patent an idea. Patents are legal documents that describe, illustrate, and register your original invention, design, or discovery. There are four types of patents:

• Utility Patents: These cover things like machines, processes, and systems.
• Design Patents: These cover manufacturer designs and the way things look.
• Plant Patents: These cover plant discoveries, developments, or reproductions.
• Provisional Patents: These are p

...

Updated June 28, 2020:

What Is a Licensing Agreement?

A licensing agreement, or license agreement, is a deal between the owner of a patent, brand, or trademark and someone who wants to use the patented or trademarked goods and services. The license grants permission to the licensee and includes stipulations. The licensee must honor these guidelines. One of the rules in the licensing agreement is usually a financial arrangement to pay for use of the license.

What Are the Elements of a Standard Licensing Agreement?

Most licensing agreements have standard clauses to cover the issues that arise most often in licensing negotiations. These clauses include the following:

• Contract length: A licensing agreement has a

...

What Does a Patent Do?

When asking "what does a patent do," remember that a patent gives the patent holder exclusive rights to an inventive process or product. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) grants these rights to inventors who have created a new way of doing something or provided a technical solution to a problem.

To obtain a patent, an inventor must provide information about the invention in a patent application, which is then disclosed to the public. Once granted a patent, the patent owner can give permission to license the invention at his or her discretion. The owner can also sell the rights to the invention, transferring patent ownership to the buyer.

After granting your patent, the USPTO will send your patent issue in the mail. It will feature the USPTO seal and be signed by the Commissioner of Patents and

...

Updated November 16, 2020:

A business method is a method of operating an aspect of an economic enterprise. A business method patent is a type of patent that claims or shows a new way of doing business. New types of e-commerce are one such example. Business method patents are a relatively new concept and have been around since 1998. Prior to this time, it was argued that business methods could not be patented, and up until 2005, the United States Patent Office required that business method inventions must apply, involve, use or advance the “technological arts” in order for a patent to be approved.

The current USPTO guidelines require that a process must produce a “concrete, useful and tangible result” in order to be patentable. Thus a business method can now be patented regardless of whether or not it must be done on a computer. Bu

...