Does the internet count as prior art for fending of a patent troll?
We have been building and running a software company since 2009. Today I spoke to someone on the phone who claims to have a patent on the area we work in since 2010. I can find a few examples of where we talk about what we're doing on the internet before 2010 but not in great detail. We didn't file for a patent because we thought the idea was so bleedingly obvious that it couldn't be patented. Is this likely to suffice?
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Did you look up the patent? Start with that - if they can give you the patent number go see for yourself and go from there. – Tim J 12 years ago
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Hmmm...bleedingly obvious...you just described 99.99999% of the patents out there. – Dunk 12 years ago
1 Answer
Possibly. Examiners have relied on citations to websites as prior art when rejecting patent applications. If I remember correctly, the important aspects are that the internet prior art is dated a year before the effective filing date of the patent application and adequately describes the elements of the claimed invention. I believe a public sale, or even an offer for sale can also be used as prior art.
However, at least one case holds that video does not fall within the printed publication category of prior art under 35 U.S.C. 102(b). See Diomed, Inc. v. AngioDynamics, Inc., 450 F. Supp. 2d 130 (D. Mass. 2006).
