text stringlengths 1 330k |
|---|
Think of the process in this way. When someone famous wants to write an autobiography or memoirs they frequently sit down and tell an accomplished writer who then writes. The accomplished writer is the computer programmer. The programmer will not write anything they are not explicitly told, just like the memoir writer.... |
What I have successfully suggested in the past to inventors is that they sit down with the person who has or will be coding the invention. The inventor and programmer should collaborate to create a technical document, sometimes called a “design document,” that will give the programmer all the information necessary to s... |
When you sit down to collect the information necessary to create the “design document” you have to keep three things in mind. Any good patent application that covers a software related invention will need to put forth three specific pieces of information. First, you need to describe the overall computer architecture of... |
Have a software innovation to patent? |
Experience with software patents and related technologies. |
CLICK HERE for MORE INFO or e-mail Gene Quinn |
Overall Computer Architecture |
Increasingly it is becoming more and more difficult to obtain a patent on business methods. Business methods became patentable subject matter in 1998 after the Federal Circuit’s decision in the now famous State Street Bank case. In May of 2008 the Federal Circuit, the chief patent court in the US, heard arguments in In... |
Essentially, the Federal Circuit did away with so-called “pure business method patents,” which are those patents that recite only business steps that are disassociated with a computer or overall system. Ultimately the Supreme Court overruled the Federal Circuit, but only to a limited extent. The pure business method of... |
What this means is that any time you have a computer related invention you need to give serious thought to describing the overall architecture of the system that will perform the desired function. Merely reciting the process steps in a way that is disassociated from the overall architecture of the system will not satis... |
Master Flow Chart |
Now that you have the overall computer architecture defined focus needs to shift to how it is that this computer system will operate to achieve the desired results. It is the software that will cause the system to operate as desired, so the software needs to be described with the greatest amount of detail possible. |
Many times those who are new to drafting patent applications that relate to software will focus entirely on how the software is used from the perspective of the end user. This information certainly should be in any application, but it is not sufficient to describe things from the user’s perspective. As far as patent la... |
What you will need to do is explain how the software operates to achieve the desired results. In order to do this it will be absolutely necessary for you to break down the software step by step so that a computer programmer will be able to create the code necessary. What this means is that you must describe the logic t... |
Routines and Subroutines |
Finally, what you need to do is break down the master flow chart into as many smaller pieces as possible. Here you will provide the fine details as to how the software will accomplish the larger tasks. You really want a series of flow charts that now show the logic of the major routines and subroutines. |
But some may be quick to point out that they previously did not have to submit flow charts when they sought software patents in years past. That may well be true, but times have changed. There is a line of recent decisions from the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, referred to as “the algorithm ca... |
Thus, flow charts, pseudo code or even software code that describes the routines and subroutines can and should be included in what you file when you file a patent application that relates to software. The rules engine that defines the “if this then that” will become a critical component of your software and of your pa... |
Once all of these pieces of information are collected you are now ready to start writing the application. Alternatively, if you are going to hire a patent attorney to assist you now is the time to move forward. |
If you need assistance with a computer related patent application feel free to contact me. My firm and I do quite a lot of work in this area for inventors and we can certainly assist you. |
- - - - - - - - - - |
For information on this and related topics please see these archives: |
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |
Posted in: Gene Quinn, IP News, Articles, Patents, Software, Software Patent Basics |
About the Author |
Leave a comment » |
1. Gene, |
As you note, having a master flowchart describe generically the process that the computer program/software performs, along with other flowcharts to describe the routines and subroutines of the parts/stepsof that process is absolutely key in not only writing the specification, but in also putting together the claim ... |
2. As someone who has been “skilled in the art” for 35 years, I have read many software patents over the years. The legal department where I work went through a phase of sending patents to us seeking an indication as to whether the company had a problem. I can say that without exception, every software patent I read ... |
Flowcharts are an excellent idea. They would force the patent to contain the actual solution, not merely state the function or problem. It would limit the scope to the implementation as per the flowchart so that if someone else were to invent a different solution to the same problem or function, there would be no c... |
3. Dear Gene, |
I have a workshop that I do on software patents for independent inventors and one of the things that I essentially add to your presentation above is that when filling in the details of the routines and subroutines that for each step they include: |
1) the simplest way that it could be accomplished |
2) the preferred method |
3) and the most sophisticated way that they can currently think of |
With the requirement that the first to need to be fully fleshed out. |
I was wondering if you provide similar guidance or if you have an alternate approach. |
As always, thanks for you valuable insights, |
Ps IPWhatchdog always gets a very deserved shout out in my presentations! |
4. Mark- |
Thanks for the shout outs! |
I agree with you. Whenever I do legal work I try and get them to complete the electronic questionnaire that is the heart of what I call the Invent and Patent System. Folks are usually game. The questions there force the inventor to answer each of your 3 points. They are essential. Once we determine something worth ... |
5. How will this change to the disclosure affect the scope of the claims? |
6. German Parliament Sends Message: Stop Granting Software Patents |
(for the sake of “inNOvation”) |
7. Step- |
Yeah… we can’t have ANY innovations that in any way require a computer. Perish the thought! |
In 100 years (probably less) folks will look back on those who made such ridiculous calls and laugh out loud at just how stupid they were. |
8. Paul- |
The disclosure requirements tightening could easily and substantially affect the scope of the claims. In fact, it could render many claims invalid for lack of support. This is the problem with software at the moment. We don’t seem to care what someone of skill in the art would understand. That coupled together with... |
9. I am just curious as to all of the other art disciplines out there if the understanding of a person of skill in the art cannot be relied upon in patent filings. |
Seems like patent prosecution will be reverting back to the times of Dickens. |
10. Anon- |
I don’t know of any other place where the law says we affirmatively do not care about what one of skill in the art would understand. Even with respect to means-plus-function claims, the algorithm cases eviscerates the foundation of 112(f). |
11. [...] Writing Software Patent Applications Building Better Software Patent Applications Patent Drafting: Defining Computer Implemented Processes Patenting Business Methods and Software in the U.S. [...] |
Health Bugs and 16 Other Ways to Qualify for an Obamacare Extension |
The deadline to enroll in Obamacare is March 31--unless you're in the hospital. Or there's a natural disaster near you. Or you experienced basically any problem with |
Late Tuesday night, the Obama administration announced that it was giving some consumers more time to sign up for health insurance. While it's not technically moving the March 31 deadline, the administration is offering an extension--of unknown length--for people who had problems trying to meet the deadline. |
According to a guidance document that the Health and Human Services Department released Wednesday, you can apply for an extension for the following reasons: |
1) You experienced a natural disaster. |
2) You have a medical emergency, such as an unexpected hospitalization. |
3) or its supporting systems had a planned outage when you tried to enroll. |
4) Someone who helped you sign up for coverage put you in the wrong plan. |
5) Someone who helped you sign up for coverage didn't actually enroll you. |
6) You didn't get the tax credits or cost-sharing reductions you're eligible for. |
7) The insurance company didn't get your information from |
8) The insurance company got your information from, but it contained errors. |
9) You're an immigrant, and told you that you weren't eligible for coverage or tax credits but you are. |
10) Incorrect plan data were displayed when you selected a plan, and it might not be the plan you want. |
11) Your family couldn't enroll together due to system errors. |
12) said you were ineligible for Medicaid or CHIP, but you are and need to get into the program. |
13) said you were eligible for Medicaid or CHIP, but you aren't and need to get private coverage. |
14) You're still getting error messages on |
15) A caseworker doesn't resolve errors with your application for coverage by March 31. |
16) You are a victim of domestic abuse (you get until May 31 to sign up). |
17) Other system errors stopped you from signing up. |
Administration officials are expected to clarify how much extra time those individuals get to enroll in a press call later Wednesday afternoon. |
A complete chart is available from the administration. |
(Image via Creativa/ |
Threatwatch Alert |
Thousands of cyber attacks occur each day |
See the latest threats |
Close [ x ] More from Nextgov |
// 10:36 AM ET |
X CLOSE Don't show again |
Like us on Facebook |
Researchers up evilness ante with GPU-assisted malware |
Coming to a PC near you |
Choosing a cloud hosting partner with confidence |
Computer scientists have developed proof-of-concept malware that evades traditional security defenses by running on a PC's graphics processor. |
The prototype taps a PC's GPU to decrypt, or “unpack,” a malicious payload from a file just prior to being run on a targeted machine. Self-unpacking techniques are a common way to defeat signature-based anti-virus scanning because they allow authors to make small changes to the compression or encryption every day or so... |
“Implementing the self-unpacking functionality of a malware binary using GPU code can pose significant obstacles to current malware detection and analysis systems,” the scientists wrote in a research paper scheduled to be presented next month at the IEEE's International Conference on Malicious and Unwanted Software. |
“A malware author can take advantage of the computational power of modern graphics processors and pack the malware with extremely complex encryption schemes that ... can be efficiently computed due to the massively parallel architecture of GPUs.” |
Once the prototype is finished unpacking the code, it places it in a memory location that can be accessed by the PC's CPU. The CPU then executes it. |
GPU-assisted malware has the added benefit of containing a much smaller amount of code that can be executed on Intel's x86 chip architecture. That leaves a much smaller footprint to be analyzed by the vast majority of anti-virus programs, which are limited to files that use that instruction set. |
The proof of concept also uses the GPU to make it much harder for security researchers to analyze the internal workings of a malicious program. So-called polymorphism has been long been used to hide a file's internals. The process becomes much more effective when it's offloaded to a GPU because keys used to decrypt par... |
“Although complete extraction of the original code is still possible by a determined malware analyst, when combined with existing anti-debugging techniques, this form of GPU-assisted polymorphism makes the whole reverse engineering process a challenging and time-consuming task,” the paper states. |
The research comes as GPU advances have drastically increased their computational power and the types of tasks they can perform. Their ability to run massively parallel software threads makes them much better suited for certain tasks, such as password cracking and media transcoding. |
The prototype was designed to run on GPUs compatible with Nvidia's CUDA, or Computer Unified Device Architecture. It wouldn't be hard for attackers to include another framework in the same malicious binary that supports GPUs made by AMD. |
The researchers envision a time when malware taps GPUs to become much more powerful. The obvious addition is for botnets to use GPUs to crack passwords and encryption keys. The researchers hold out other possibilities, such as malware that manipulates the CPU to display false information on a computer monitor, or the s... |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.