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Patent reform: Can preissuance submissions help?

Posted by tracyanne on · 6 comments
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While almost no one thinks that the America Invents Act (AIA) will completely solve America’s patent problems, there are a few provisions in the AIA that may be useful tools in limiting and/or preventing bad patents. One of these tools is the newly implemented Preissuance Submission procedure, which went into effect on September 16, 2012. This procedure allows third parties to participate in the patent application process by providing prior art, which can then be used by a patent examiner to determine whether a patent application lacks novelty or is otherwise obvious. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has now seized upon the new procedure to organize a project to identify pending applications related to 3D printing and then seek out relevant prior art for submission.

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Comments (6)

henke54 ·
Quoting:Earlier this week, Apple got a bunch of new patents approved, including one covering the "design" of the original iPad.

What does this "design" patent cover?

Mostly, it covers the fact that the iPad's "design" is a rectangle with rounded corners.
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/apple-ipad-paten...

helios ·
This patent confuses me, on G+ there was a link to an article that showed examples of "prior art" that would not be covered under this patent. The Ipad was one of them. ???
gus3 ·
A rectangle with rounded corners. Now, let me think, I've seen that before....

Oh, yes! Credit cards!

Library cards!

Drivers' licenses!
caitlyn ·
You have to admit that the iPad is a rectangle with rounded corners. They aren't lying about that.

Oy vey!
Bob_Robertson ·
Patenting an aesthetic.

Jobs is truly dead.
JaseP ·
No,... Jobs is the one who had them PATENT the aesthetic...

Rounded rectangle computer tablet device...It was so obvious that Stanley Kubrick had one in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Which, despite the fact that it wasn't a real device, ought to be enough to prove that the the design is neither novel or non-obvious. After all, design patents only cover things like the plastic "barrel full of monkeys" toys, or dinosaur shaped non-slip tub decals.

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