Hello and welcome to our little slice of the World, a place where passion and opinions run high in our niche area, which just so happens to be the world of patents, innovation, technology, business and other areas of intellectual property. Although Lewis Lee, our founder, is a patent attorney, and many of the contributors to our content are IP counselors, the content should NOT be considered to be legal advice, but rather are intended to be informational. No attorney-client relationship is established through your use of IP Street. For more information please check our Disclaimer, Terms & Conditions and our Privacy Policy.

Understanding the growing "Intermediary" landscape is essential for your development of in/out strategies. Whether you are looking to buy/sell, license, identify potential infringement/infringees, expand/limit patent scope within a portfolio, you need to be aware of the competive landscape. Many intermediaries have developed sophisticated algorithms to determine their course of action. With our patent search tools, you can quickly and easily execute strategy based on our sophisticated algorithms. Understanding patent analytics just got easier.

Historically, commercial use of university research has been viewed in terms of spillovers. Recently, there has been a dramatic increase in technology transfer through licensing as universities attempt to appropriate the returns from faculty research. This change has prompted concerns regarding the source of this growth—specifically, whether it suggests a change in the nature of university research. (Thursby 2002) ^ University-based firms are receiving growing interest from policy makers and researchers. Such firms obtain a variety of tangible and intangible resources from their academic partners, and are expected to translate these advantages into substantial gains. (Bonardo 2011) ^Technology transfer is a big concern for universities, how can they identify business opportunities from IP developed? We have created relationships with universities to help them do just that. Contact us to learn more.

A single patent may be worth a billion dollars, another may be completely worthless. How can you discern such differences? With millions of patent documents (both issued patents and applications), there is a lot of information, that if properly leveraged with the correct technologies, can actually help us discern effectively. Benefits of www.ipstreet.com include: (1) All U.S. patent documents from 1976—present (2) [Forthcoming: International patent documents] (3) Unified Search (Boolean Text Search) (4) Concept Search (using Latent Semantics) (5) Meaningful, graphical results (6) Web-based, no installation required (7) Secure transactions and (8) Immediate Access.

Although most inventions will be concerned with the rights a patent grants during its monopoly or in-force period (from the date the patent issues until it expires (20 years after the filing date)), the law actually recognizes five "rights" periods in the life of an invention. (1) Invention conceived but not yet documented: When an inventor conceives of an invention, but hasn't yet made any written, signed, dated, and witness record of it, the inventor has no legal rights whatsoever, only the potential for acquiring rights. (2) Invention documented but patent application not yet filed: After making a proper, signed, dated and witnessed documentation of an invention, the inventor has valuable rights against any inventor who later conceives of the same invention and applies for a patent. An inventor who documents the building and testing of the invention has substantially greater rights than one who merely documents conception. During this period the invention may also be treated as a "trade secret" this is, kept confidential. This gives the inventor the legal right to sue and recover damages against anyone who immorally learns of the invention, for instance, through industrial spying. (3) Patent Pending - Patent application filed but not yet issued: During the patent pending period, including the one year period after a provisional patent application is filed, the inventor's rights are the same as they are in period 2 above for the most part. Otherwise, the inventor has no rights whatsoever against infringers, only the hope of a future monopoly, which doesn't commence until a patent issues. Most companies that manufacture a product this is the subject of a pending patent application will mark the product "patent pending" in order to warn potential copiers that it they copy the product, they may have to stop later if and when the patent issues. The PTO by law must keep all patent applications preserved in secrecy until the application is published or the patent issues. The patent pending period usually lasts from one to three years. (4) In-force patent - patent issued but hasn't yet expired: After the patent issues, the patent owner can bring and maintain a lawsuit for a patent infringement against anyone who makes, uses or sells the invention without permission. The patents in force period last from the date it issues until 20 years from its filing date, provided maintenance fees are paid. Nearly every patent is guaranteed an in-force period of at least 17 years. In order to assure this 17-year term, the patent will be extended, if necessary, to compensate for delays resulting from failures by the PRO in processing the patent application. Also, once the patent issues, it becomes a public record or publication that can block others who file later from getting patents on the same or similar inventions, that is, it becomes "prior art" to anyone who files after its filing date. (5) Patent expired: After the patent expires (20 years after the filing date, or sooner if a maintenance fee isn't paid), the patent owner has no further rights, although infringement suits can be brought for any infringement that occurred during the patent's in-force period. An expired patent remains a valid "prior art reference" (as of its filing date) forever. IPStreet.com's patent search tools and resources will help you better understand if your idea is patentable, the duration of a patent and complex patent analytics.