[Insight-developers] OPEN SOURCE: How to prevent Patents: DEFENSIVE PUBLICATIONS

[Luis Ibanez]

Here is a tactic for preventing Patents

http://www.defensivepublications.org/login.jsp


WHAT IS A DEFENSIVE PUBLICATION?

Defensive publications, which are endorsed by the USPTO as an IP rights
management tool, are documents that provide descriptions and artwork of
a product, device or method so that it enters the public domain and
becomes prior art. This powerful preemptive disclosure prevents other
parties from obtaining a patent on the product, device or method. It
enables the original inventor to ensure that they have access to their
invention by preventing others from later making patent claims on it. It
also means that they do not have to shoulder the cost of patent
applications.

The Defensive Publications program, a component of Linux Defenders,
enables non-attorneys to use a set of Web-based forms to generate
defensive publications. It relies on substantial participation from the
open source community as it relates to disclosures. Defensive
publication drafts will be reviewed and edited as needed and at no
charge by OIN's attorneys. The completed defensive publication will be
added by OIN to the IP.com Prior Art Database, which is in turn used by
IP attorneys and the patent and trademark office to search for prior art
when examining patent applications.


* "Prior Art Database ": http://priorartdatabase.com/

SUBMIT DEFENSIVE PUBLICATIONS

In the event you have an invention that you would like to have prepared
as a defensive publication, please submit your invention here. Upon
registration, you will be provided support in structuring your invention
so it can be effective as prior art and placed in the public domain. If
during the process you wish to have your invention prepared as a patent
instead of a defensive publication, we will work with you to facilitate
the preparation of a patent disclosure which will be prosecuted and
licensed as part of Open Invention Network's patent estate to the
broader community on a royalty free and fully paid up basis. The choice
is yours. Our interest is in ensuring that the Linux community has an
outlet to invent that limits poor quality patents and ensures freedom of
action/freedom to operate across the entire ecosystem.



WHAT WE ARE TRYING TO DO

We are attempting to mobilize the creativity and innovative capacities
of the Linux and broader open source community to codify the universe of
preexisting inventions in defensive publications that upon publication
in the IP.com Prior Art Database will immediately serve as effective
prior art that prevents anyone from having a patent issued that claims
inventions that have already been documented in a defensive publication.
In addition to creating a vehicle to utilize this highly effective form
of IP rights management for known inventions, it is hoped that the
community will use defensive publications as a means of codifying future
inventions should the inventors prefer not to make their invention the
subject of a patent disclosure and application.

--------

You can register here:
http://www.defensivepublications.org/register.jsp