I once spent about four months going through several hundred patents of a competitor, finding a way to do a product that did not infringe. We more or less succeeded, but man it was painful. Had expert legal help (and permission of our corporate lawyers) -- don't go off on your own and read these things.
A few thoughts on patents:
- Don't bother reading anything other than the claims. Ignore everything else (yes, even the diagrams) unless referenced by the claims.
- Yes, they do try to -- and succeed in -- patenting stuff you can pull out of a textbook. One patent was a near cut-and-paste of some stuff on Kalman filters (that one made me pretty mad).
- Any time a patent lawyer makes a reference to a patent's "teachings", punch them in the nose. These things don't teach anyone anything, that's an impolite fiction for a game that's really all about obfuscation. If there was a patent that described how to nail two boards together, you wouldn't walk away from reading that patent with any useful knowledge.
- The very fact that every company in the US will tell you "Please, for the love of Pete, don't go read patents on your own, without permission" again belies that these things are land-grabs that are never designed to advance the state of the art through teaching.
That's what the lawyers always tell you. "Out of an abundance of caution" etc. etc. yada yada yada. Always listen to your lawyers :)
Now, for the reality: I never saw this happen. How would they know you looked at their patent? From your server logs? From the PTO's? Do you think they file discovery on your personal computer? (Just don't send an email about their patent or write anything down about it -- THAT they can track.) Very, very few infringement suits go to trial anyway.
I think the real reason the lawyers tell you this is so they won't have to answer your questions. And because you might misinterpret the claims (not at all a hard thing to do).
If your management and lawyers want to, they can get an official opinion from a lawyer that you're not infringing. That's something you can use.
A few thoughts on patents:
- Don't bother reading anything other than the claims. Ignore everything else (yes, even the diagrams) unless referenced by the claims.
- Yes, they do try to -- and succeed in -- patenting stuff you can pull out of a textbook. One patent was a near cut-and-paste of some stuff on Kalman filters (that one made me pretty mad).
- Any time a patent lawyer makes a reference to a patent's "teachings", punch them in the nose. These things don't teach anyone anything, that's an impolite fiction for a game that's really all about obfuscation. If there was a patent that described how to nail two boards together, you wouldn't walk away from reading that patent with any useful knowledge.
- The very fact that every company in the US will tell you "Please, for the love of Pete, don't go read patents on your own, without permission" again belies that these things are land-grabs that are never designed to advance the state of the art through teaching.
I am not a lawyer. I do not play one on TV.