Patent Length

How long is a patent good for?

How long after a violation of patent rights happens, does the owner of the patent have to file a claim?

 

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/doc/general/index.html#nature

The date that the patent application was filed is stated in the patent. Note that this only applies to U.S. Patents. European, Canadian, Japanese and other patents likely have different terms.

IANAL but I don't think there is a statute of limitations on filing a patent infringement claim with the courts, since the inventor (or assignee) likely only becomes aware of the infringement after it has occurred. If the patent has expired, the inventor obviously can't ask for an injunction against the infringer, but probably can sue for royalties or lost profits during the period the patent was in force.

There is a bit more information here:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/doc/general/index.html#infringement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_infringement

According to the Wikipedia article:

If you don't have deep pockets, litigation is probably not feasible.

 

Thanks. Strangely, I just became aware of a patent in the family - it's old, but pretty important. I can't imagine that it wasn't infringed actually, but I am curious about how much effort I should expend looking into it.

 

That's pretty cool to have a family inventor.

I've actually been involved in patent litigation (but not as an attorney, so take this as you will). Patent litigation is complex and very expensive. You would have to hire attorneys with expertise in patent law, since patents don't even use the English language in the way you would expect (imagine dozens of attorney hours used in arguing over the definition of a single word in the patent claims). You would also have to subpoena the accused infringing company for their records, and someone with the expertise to understand them (and the patent claims) would have to analyze them. If you thought that a "big fish" infringed on the patent and you sued them, they would almost certainly turn around and try to get the patent invalidated. That might be hard to defend if the original inventor doesn't remember the details surrounding the original invention, or if there isn't clear documentation of the invention.

Sorry to be so negative. If you want to give it a shot anyway, you can find a local patent attorney here: http://des.uspto.gov/OEDCI/
You would probably at least be able get a general opinion about the validity and enforceability of the claims for the price of a few attorney hours.

 

This is kind of like finding old stock for companies that no longer exist. Assuming the patent is old and no one seemed to know about it until recently, more than likely it's no longer valid. But you never know, definitely worth looking into, which you can probably do by searching uspto.gov. On the otherhand, if you have the paperwork, its old, and for a popular or unusual patent, it may have some value from a Scripophily viewpoint.

Wouldn't it be great to discover you inherited the patent for some product that has made billions?

 

In my humble opinion patents aren't worth the paper they're written on. China has been infringing patents for years, it's an extremely expensive task trying to chase a patent infringement.
First the company will deny that it's infringing your patent, you have to prove they are. Then if they have made any money out of it they'll hire really expensive lawyers who will run circles around you and if they've not made much money they'll close the company and start a new one after they've changed the design a tiny bit then you have to go after them all again.

 

Oh my god... I just talked with my Mom about the patent. My Dad was starting a new company at the time. His partner was apparently turning into a bit of a pain about money and my Dad wanted to concentrate on the new business. He sold his interest in the patent to his partner for $5,000.00 - mostly to just get away from the hassle.

The patent?

The Mouthguard. You know - the one's that athletes use to make sure their teeth don't get knocked out. They didn't invent the mouth guard altogether - but the patented concept was the idea of rigidizing the backplane behind the teeth - which resulted in a significantly reduced number of broken teeth.

http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT3943924

Oh well... I guess I'll have to keep working for my money

 

Ouch. At least you can say your dad was an important part of sports history.