RE: Active Buddy patent application on "Bots"(rewritten to reduce size)

Iain Shigeoka wrote:
> At this rate I don't think we can manage=20
> without help and tools.
	I am currently in the process of putting together what will be
at least a start in providing the tools we need to stay aware of the new
patents and applications as well as to collect the necessary prior art.
	My plan is roughly the following: (although details may change)
	1) I will create a web site on which we'll post the "header"
information for new patents when they are issued on Tuesdays and
applications that get published on Thursday's. This will work much like
a bibliographical database with each record pointing to the full text
document at the patent office. I am also working on trying to see what
can be done about things in foreign patent offices.
	2) As "interesting" patents or applications are discovered, I'll
try to have them summarized, or will accept summaries contributed by
members of the community. Please let me know if you're willing to
contribute time to doing these summaries. Note: You should have enough
experience in the business to be able to identify the implications of a
granted patent -- that is, unfortunately, something that probably only
comes with time...
	3) I'll provide a mechanism where people can input comments on
each patent or application indicating what prior art might exist or
providing pointers to potential prior art. My assumption is that we'll
want to also do things like link to discussions in this mailing list.
The site will then become a public record of prior art identified by the
broadest possible community and will be useful to PTO examiners,
defendants in cases, inventors, etc.
	4) I'm in the process of getting some lawyers and legal types to
write up clear and consistent instructions on how to interpret the
various documents, how to protest applications, how to do "third-party
filing of prior art" during the two month protest window, etc. While
there is much of this stuff written and available on the web today, it
is primarily focused on the problems of filing applications and on
defending against charges of infringment. There is very little useful
material on how to exploit the new two month window for protesting
applications.
	5) We'll have the obvious links to other patent related
resources.
	6) I will be carefully determining the precise steps that must
be taken to ensure that comments made on the site or documents
referenced by the site are useful as "prior art" by qualifying as
"printed publications." The precise steps required are still in
discussion with the lawyers. (Note: This may involve sending a printed
copy of the updates to the site to the PTO on a weekly basis as a
"defensive disclosure".)
	7) Other steps as required and as suggested by others... Please
let me know what you think would be helpful.=20

	If you have ideas on how to best organize or build a site to
provide a forum for the collection of prior art and to build awareness
of the patents and applications as they are discovered, please feel free
to send them to me or post them to this list. If you're willing to
contribute to programming the site, let me know.
	Thanks in advance for your help. The site I'm talking about will
be up "soon"...

		bob wyman



-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf Of Iain Shigeoka
Sent: Saturday, January 25, 2003 12:42 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [IM-patents] Active Buddy patent application on
"Bots"(rewritten to reduce size)


On 1/23/03 10:52, "Bob Wyman" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Peter Saint-Andre wrote:
>> The fact that there are over 700 pending patent applications=20
>> containing the phrase instant messaging is pretty scary.
>   Yes, very scary. The IM space is being locked up by patents very=20
> quickly but it isn't the only space with a similar problem. For=20
> instance, there are currently 372 patent applications that contain the

> phrase "Session Initiation Protocol" (many of these are not IM=20
> related). The SIP space is being pinned down in a terrible way...
>=20
>> it would take me a year to work through the backlog.
>   The most important thing to do here is to keep up to date on new=20
> patents and new applications. It is *very* important to keep up to=20
> date on new applications since there is a tiny, two-month window=20
> during which third-parties are able to submit prior art to the PTO=20
> that will be considered in the patent granting process. This is a=20
> relatively new

At this rate I don't think we can manage without help and tools. Sounds
like another JSF web project... :) Isn't there some other website where
they post patents and ask people for prior art that would invalidate
them?

I think we might have better luck with getting other members to share
the load if people could volunteer an hour or two in a clear cut task.
Reading through a patent to see if it warrants attention seems to nicely
fall into that category if we could make it easy to 'take ownership' of
a particular patent review.

-iain

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