I just saw a headline about Ford patenting a system to eavesdrop on passengers conversations to serve them related ads. If I had patented that before, could I stop it from being used?
In theory yes
In reality, they will find a way around your patent.
Look up the patent on window wipers as an example
This oddly reminds me that the original patent for the chainsaw was for aiding childbirth.
I’ll let anyone curious enough google that.
I’m not doing the research on that. That is horrifying
If it makes you feel better they were tiny compared to what’s at home depot
Kearns and the car windshield wipers?
I think that might have been his name.
If you hold a patent, then you have an exclusive right to that invention for a fixed period, which would be 20 years from the filing date in the USA. That would mean Ford could not claim the same or a derivative invention, at least not for the parts which overlap with your patent. So yes, you could sit on your patent and do nothing until it expires, with some caveats.
But as a practical matter, the necessary background research, the application itself, and the defense of a patent just to sit on it would be very expensive, with no apparent revenue stream to pay for it. I haven’t looked up what sort of patent Ford obtained (or maybe they’ve merely started the application) but patents are very long and technical, requiring whole teams of lawyers to draft properly.
For their patent to be valid, they must not overlap with an existing claim, as well as being novel and non-obvious, among other requirements. They would only do this to: 1) protect themselves from competition in future, 2) expect that this patent can be monetized by directly implementing it, or licensing it out to others, or becoming a patent troll and extracting nuisance-value settlements, or 3) because they’re already so deep in the Intellectual Property land-grab that they must continue to participate by obtaining outlandish patents. The latter is a form of “publish or perish” and allows them to appear like they’re on the cutting edge of innovation.
A patent can become invalidated if it is not sufficiently defended. This means that if no one even attempts to infringe, then your patent would be fine. But if someone does, then you must file suit or negotiate a license with them, or else they can challenge the validity of your patent. If they win, you’ll lose your exclusive rights and they can implement the invention after-all. This is not cheap.
Even if nobody finds a way around, that would be incredibly expensive.
Yes, but you would need to defend your patent and continue to file patents and variations as tech evolves to prevent work-arounds.
In theory yes, you have to remember though that you have to enforce parents yourself. If you suspect infringement you will have to sue and carry the lawyer costs, at least until a court judges in your favor. This is off course besides the costs of applying for the parent itself. Your patent might also not be valid in all countries.
In practice the chances of a private person doing this and winning against a multi-billion dollar corporation without going bankrupt are negligible.
Those damn parent application costs!
That’s what my sister had to pay before adopting her kid.
Have you ever heard of China
