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1500 questions
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Can the non-obviousness of an invention be challenged if the difference to prior art is only the mathematical-statistical approach?
TL;DR
Given a patent application describing a calculation using a maximum likelihood approach, and a piece of prior art that has the same goal but uses Monte Carlo simulation, is this sufficient to challenge non-obviousness?
The documents
I'm…
balpha
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16
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5 answers
Prior art for using a camera in self-driving cars
Toyota has filed a patent (#20120226392) for a "Driving support apparatus and driving support method". Its main claim:
A driving support apparatus that performs a driving support for causing a vehicle to travel in a lane, the driving support…
hairboat
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15
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2 answers
Prior Art for GoDaddy Patent Announcing a Domain Name Registration on a Social Website
DomainWire has announced that the USPTO has just issued a patent to GoDaddy that covers a method of announcing a domain name announcement on a social network. U.S. patent number 8,276,057. In my view, these patents are getting ridiculous. Uneducated…
vijay
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4 answers
How can I contact the owner of a patent?
I am looking to contact a person who patented something. I am really interested in the vehicle covering system patent (US8430444) and would like to contact the inventor. Is there any way to get their contact information?
Jennifer Froud
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2 answers
ONLINE ESCORT SERVICE Patent Application - PRIOR ART REQUEST
This Patent Application received a non-final rejection by the US Patent Office! An initial rejection is part of the typical course of a patent application.
Thanks to the YOU, the Ask Patents community, overly-broad claims have at least been…
Micah Siegel
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15
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2 answers
What are the possible consequences of using software developed outside of the US that infringes a software patent?
Suppose I'm developing a software and I operate in the country that doesn't recognize Software Patents. I make my software available for users in several countries including the United States. What if my software infringes some software patent? Am I…
Andrei Андрей Листочкин
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14
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1 answer
When patenting in the United States, what impact does patenting in other countries too have?
I've seen where companies have filed for the same patent in multiple additional countries beyond the United States. What is the motivation for such extensive patenting? What impact (if any) do these international patents have on their US patent? …
WilliamKF
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14
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1 answer
Can a very basic shape of a product be patented?
There have been recent patent fights (such as Apple v. Samsung) that seem to claim certain basic physical forms of devices, such as a smartphone, can be patented. Aren't there a limited number of possible shapes possible? Does patent law allow one…
bib
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8 answers
Double tap spacebar to insert period and capitalize next character (RIM) - Issued Patent - PRIOR ART REQUEST
AN OVERBROAD PATENT ON USER INTERFACE - This patent from RIM claims the idea of... doubletap spacebar to insert periods and capitalize! 10 minutes of your time can help narrow US patent applications before they become patents. Follow @askpatents on…
Hal
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14
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4 answers
Is it possible to quickly kill existing patents?
My biggest fear is that all the really valuable and very broad patents that qualify as crap have been granted, and we're merely in the midst of the "long tail" of patent applications. How can we fix the problem of the 30,000+ patents that have the…
orokusaki
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13
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7 answers
Prior art for Apple's "unified search" patent
US patent 8,086,604 is the one Apple used to temporarily get sales of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus blocked. It covers using a single UI to search multiple data sources, including both local and remote ones. Here is the first claim:
1. A method for…
peastman
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1 answer
Was there a landmark controversial software patent of a trivial idea before the "XOR flashing cursor" patent?
Currently the majority of bad press about trivial software patents is all centred around Apple and other smartphone industry players.
A few years ago it was the Amazon "1-click" patent everybody was deriding. (US 5960411)
Going back a few decades…
hippietrail
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13
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2 answers
Is there a specified route to convert UK patents to US patents?
If I have an existing UK patent, is there a way to get it recognised in the US, or to convert it to be a US patent?
My guess is that there must be agreements between countries on how they handle patents, but is this true?
Rory Alsop
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3 answers
Prior art for SEO
Patent Application #20120016857 appears to be for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Here is its claim 1:
A computer-readable medium comprising computer-readable instructions for providing search engine optimization analysis, wherein execution of…
ScrumDude432
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13
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4 answers
CALL FOR PRIOR ART: “Method and System for Weight Management” (13/466,661)
This Patent Application was given a "final rejection" by the US Patent Office. An applicant has several ways to keep an application in this state alive. They include a request for continuing examination. It just involves paying more fees and…
Aarthi
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