Patent Law?

What’s New In...
06-What’s new:NATIONAL
8/25/10
6:50 PM
Page 32
Patent Law?
Is it worth the hassle?
When patenting an invention is not a client’s best bet.
By Steve Mendelsohn
Patentability and marketability
are two very different things.
Just because an invention is
patentable, doesn’t mean it is
also marketable.
T
here are some good reasons why your clients
should patent their inventions, but there are
even more good reasons why they should not.
Perhaps the best reason for your clients to
patent their inventions is that they can make
millions of dollars by enforcing those patents against
those who make, use, or sell products embodying those
inventions.
Assume, for example, that your client invented intermittent windshield wipers. You might think that that
would certainly be a great invention for your client to
32
N AT I O N A L
Patentability v. marketability
I know what you are thinking.
You’re thinking that intermittent
windshield wipers was just an
example used to make a point. And
you would be right. The point is that it is extremely
unlikely that you will come up with a patentable
invention that is worth even $20 in royalty payments,
let alone millions. For example, somebody already
invented intermittent windshield wipers.
Take the woman who called me from Ohio about 10
years ago to tell me that she had just invented the combined carbon monoxide detector/automatic garage door
opener. When the device detects a high level of carbon
monoxide in the garage, it automatically opens the
garage door, thereby reducing the carbon monoxide level
September 2010
ROBERT JOHANNSEN
patent, right? With such a patent,
your client could collect millions and
millions of dollars in royalty payments by enforcing that patent
against automobile manufacturers.
But you would be wrong. Intermittent windshield wipers were
patented in 1967 by Robert Kearns
of Detroit, Mich., who made millions
of dollars in royalty payments by
enforcing his patent against automobile manufacturers. In the United
States, the rule is that only the first
inventor of an invention is entitled to
get a patent on that invention, and
your client wasn’t the first inventor.
[Canadian patents are awarded on a
first-to-file basis. Canadians seeking
protection in the U.S. market often
file their U.S. patent application
prior to filing in Canada.]
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