!19981015  Two weeks of software patent news; GARAGE.COM;  Europe patent info
 
    Next Monday I will start two weeks of stories on software patent news. In 1998/1999, the US PTO will issue 40,000 software patents - that's right, 40,000.  To put a total of 40,000 into perspective, well ......, you can't. It is ten times the number of software patents issued in 1992 and 1993, though without ten times the amount of staff and resources.  Since the PTO management and the exam process is the same, and most applicants still using Rule 56 to not search, this tenfold output can only mean a significant reduction in software patent quality from 1990s levels of quality that already was low.
 
    Here is a tentative list of stories (most will go out only to PATNEWS readers, not other lists I post to):
 
    1) 1998 software patent statistics - 350+ a week is 20,000 a year     2) Bad software patents from August 1998 - Part I
    3) Bad software patents from August 1998 - Part II
    4) Estimated rates of future software patent assertions/litigations     5) Financial/Business Methods patents: 600 in 1998, 1000 in 1999     6) Thousands of Internet patents - too many too invalid too asserted     7) IBM kills White House software patent study
    8) IP world contempt for ACM/IEEE/IEE/SPIE/LNCS/USGOV/SAE/ASME     9) PTO/EPO/JPO just don't get it - small entities getting screwed     10) Comments from PATNEWS readers
    11) Review of comments on software patents in the press
    12) Comments from the PTO and EPO (if I can get any)
    13) Solution: the Government funded MEDLINE - it should fund SOFTLINE
 
If you have any observations you want to share with everyone else, either anonymously or not, start writing them and sending them my way.  If you have your favorite crappy software patent of recent months, let me know.
 
Four new categories will be added to my statistical counts: Internet, Quantum Computing, Java, and Year 2000, though the big categories (networking, operating systems, graphics, etc.) still dominate, for example, around 4000 networking/communications software patents will issue this year.
 
Other than the updated statistics, and new examples, the statistics of issued software patents has not changed in the four years since Compton's patent brought these problems into the public view - the PTO has made no progress. Thus think of this series as more an opportunity to justify raising my rates at the end of the year then saying anything new :-)
 
                              ====================
 
    I recently sent out a story and reader comment on Guy Kawasaki and GARAGE.COM.  The reader's comment appears below, preceded by a correction from one of the people mentioned in the reader's comments. Never forget that Silicon Valley is a very competitive place when I pass on comments from Silicon Valley readers.
 
 
    Greg,
 
    The below item from your email newsletter was forwarded to me. 
 
    While Guy Kawasaki, Rich Karlgaard and I were the original founders     of garage.com and I remain actively involved, Venture Law Group in     no way expects to (or could) represent all the companies which come     to garage.com.  Legal counsel for garage.com is Wilson Sonsini Goodrich     & Rosati (Alan Austin, WSG&R's Managing Partner, is garage.com's     Corporate Secretary), and we hope over time to have all the major law     firms in Silicon Valley affiliated with garage.com and listed as     "resources" to startup companies on garage.com's website.  VLG already     has to turn away most of the companies coming to it for representation     due to our strategy of taking fewer clients and giving them more senior,     focused attention.
 
    Ask Guy if he feels "co-opted"!  The truth is we're all having a lot     of fun creating a new method of funding and help for "not quite ready     for venture capital" technology companies.
 
    Craig Johnson
    Chairman
    Venture Law Group
 
    >    -- MORE ON GUY KAWASAKI AND GARAGE.COM
    >
    > You missed the real story on this one. Another founder/board member
    > of GARAGE.COM is Craig Johnson, founder and principal of Venture Law
    > Group, one of the leading Valley law firms that does IPO and startup
    > work. VLG profits handsomely from each IPO, because they require all
    > clients to grant VLG a 1% equity interest as a partial fee. One of
    > the likely functions of GARAGE.COM will be to route lots of legal
    > work, for the startups that it funds, to VLG.
    >
    > In other words, Craig's basically convinced a luminary like Kawasaki
    > to pound the streets drumming up work for VLG! It's beautiful!  I'm
    > surprised someone as smart as Kawasaki doesn't mind being co-opted
    > like this.
 
                              ====================
 
A message from the European Patent Office about a rather fantastic coordinated set of developments going on over in Europe.  I have tried the system (at least as accessed through the UKPO Web site), and it is pretty good. Hopefully at some point all of the PO's can get more sophisticated search engines that offer more than the current Boolean query processing (and I know and many others could build such search engines for, say, $860,000).
 
I assume at some point the superefficient PTO patent data people will remember to post some information on what follows on the PTO web pages dealing with patent information, especially on the  patents.uspto.gov  Web page.  I will be glad to write some HTML for their Web page if the need the help or inspiration :-)
 
That patent offices in Europe can offer a search engine to a unified database of PTO/EPO/JPO/PCT patent abstracts, while the USPTO isn't offering such access, makes me yet again question the competence and civic attitude of the PTO towards providing taxpayers with the best access possible.
 
 
                                      ====
 
EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE
 
    We wish to inform you on the progress of the implementation of the Internet Service "esp@cenet", an EPO initiative in co-operation with the EC. We are still in a pilot phase, but you can certainly already get a good idea of what will be the service offered.
 
Remember that in what we call the level 2, the access to the facsimile images of all the documents will be possible in January 1999.(this concerns point 5 below).
 
  ...................................
 
 
- With "esp@cenet" most of the 18 National Offices of the European Patent Organization will distribute their publications on Internet: you can search these documents (at least the 2 last years) on the national esp@cenet server.
 
- You can access the national server using your preferred language: English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Portuguese, Swedish, ... and receive an help desk support in this language.
 
- Entering the system through the access point of your choice, you can consult:
 
1 - The national documents of the Office chosen as entry point
2 - The national documents of the other Offices of the EPO
3 - The European Patent Applications.
4 - The PCT pamphlets (WO applications)
5 - The worldwide database of the European Patent Office.
6 - The Patent abstracts of Japan (english abstract and drawing)
 
[GREG NOTE: I am surprised that there isn't a option number 7 for the patent abstracts of the US.  The abstracts are part of option number 5, though.]
 
- The volume of documents (approx. 30 million) and the quality of the database make "esp@cenet" unique as Internet access to patent documentation.
 
- The objective is to promote the awareness of the Patent System and of the rich information contained in Patent documents.
 
-The system is easy to use with simple questions. It is free of charge.
 
  ....................................
 
Today the following servers are in function:
 
1  - Austria:                      http://at.dips.org.patent.bmwa.gv.at
2  - Belgium:                      http://be.dips.org
3  - Switzerland:                  http://www.dips.ch
4  - Denmark:                      http://dips.dkpto.dk
5  - Spain:                        http://www.dips.oepm.es
6  - Finland:                      http://espacenet.prh.fi
7  - Italy:                        http://it.dips.org
8  - Monaco:                        http://mc.dips.org
9  - Portugal:                      http://www.dips.inpi.pt
10 - United Kingdom:                http://dips.patent.gov.uk
11 - European Patent Applications:  http://ep.dips.org
 
 
The list of servers with the languages they support is given at:     http://www.european-patent-office.org/espacenet/info/access.htm
 
                                      ==
 
Note 1: please visit the french server at:
    http://www.inpi.fr/inpi/html/inbrevet.htm
 
It functions for the time being independently of the "esp@cenet" service but will connect to the general service in a few weeks.
 
We draw your attention on the quality and volume of the documentation offered in french on this server: french national documents, translations in french of the abstracts of the EP and WO documents designating France.
 
Have a look also at an excellent tool offered to assist non specialists in the use of the International Patent Classification (IPC).
 
                                      ==
 
Note 2: the following national servers will start operations in the next weeks:      Germany          Greece        Ireland
            Luxembourg        Sweden        Cyprus
 
                                      ==
 
Note 3: the service "Esp@cenet" will be accessible also from the Internet Site developed by the European Commission "IPR help desk"; it will function by the mid of October.
 
This Site will offer a comprehensive information support for all questions related to Innovation and Intellectual Property to the companies participating in the Commission search and development programmes.
 
                                      ==
 
Note 4: you can find more information about "esp@cenet", particularly the documents coverage at:
    http://www.european-patent-office.org/espacenet/info/access.htm
 
  ...............................
 
We are particularly grateful to all the users who are testing the system in this pilot phase and addressing us their advice.
 
Gerard Giroud
EPO
 
                              ====================
 
Greg Aharonian
Internet Patent News Service