We have been building and running a software company since 2009. Today I spoke to someone on the phone who claims to have a patent on the area we work in since 2010. I can find a few examples of where we talk about what we're doing on the internet before 2010 but not in great detail. We didn't file for a patent because we thought the idea was so bleedingly obvious that it couldn't be patented. Is this likely to suffice?
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Possibly. Examiners have relied on citations to websites as prior art when rejecting patent applications. If I remember correctly, the important aspects are that the internet prior art is dated a year before the effective filing date of the patent application and adequately describes the elements of the claimed invention. I believe a public sale, or even an offer for sale can also be used as prior art. However, at least one case holds that video does not fall within the printed publication category of prior art under 35 U.S.C. 102(b). See Diomed, Inc. v. AngioDynamics, Inc., 450 F. Supp. 2d 130 (D. Mass. 2006). |
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