Overview

Patenting is extremely expensive and most companies have more innovative ideas than budgeted patent resources. Who can afford to patent everything? On the other hand, who can afford to let competitors patent technology used in your products and services? Worse yet, how do you know, years in advance, which patentable ideas you will need for your products and services? Defensive publishing is a low cost way to prevent competitors from obtaining patents and protect your freedom to practice.

IP.com provides an electronic means for placing technology into the public domain. It is fast, affordable, and highly effective. Specifically, defensive publications submitted to IP.com:

• Are published electronically on a real time basis
• Are digitally fingerprinted and date-stamped as irrefutable proof of the content/date
• Are published twice each month in the IP.com Journal
• Are made available via the web and libraries around the world
• Are searched worldwide by patent examiners
• Become an integral part of corporate IP strategies
• Reduce the costs of IP administration by preserving your right to use technology without the cost of patenting

How It Works

Getting your innovation published as prior art with IP.com is so simple, that it is easy to overlook everything that goes on "behind the scenes" at IP.com. We take a number of steps to increase the value of the documents you publish with us, such as making the contents automatically searchable, and providing solid fingerprinting and date-stamping in order to ensure your ability to use our records in the event you need to defend yourself at trial.

1. A disclosure is prepared

   A disclosure is prepared using everyday business software (or a pre-existing file is chosen to be a disclosure). Files in the following formats are accepted for the primary file (disclosure): Plain Text (txt), Microsoft Word (doc), Microsoft PowerPoint (ppt), Adobe Acrobat (pdf), Rich Text Format (rtf), and HTML (htm/html). An additional file of any type may also be included as an 'attachment' - this attached file will not be searchable, however.

2. Upload your file(s)

   Using our publishing wizard, you upload your file(s), along with some bibliographic information about your file, to the servers at IP.com. Publishing a disclosure requires that you either purchase a publishing voucher, or have a corporate account with pre-paid publishing vouchers.

3. Files are scanned and digital fingerprints are generated.

   Your files are scanned to ensure they do not contain any viruses which would make them harmful to distribute. Upon clearing the virus scan, each file receives a digital fingerprint. Fingerprints provide a digital signature of a file's contents. Altering a file in any way will produce a different fingerprint. In this way, fingerprints can be used to determine if a file has been altered.

4. Text Extraction.

   Your primary file is automatically scanned for searchable text content which gets extracted from your document, in order to make your document searchable. Some files (files composed entirely of images, for example) may not contain any searchable text - you can choose to have the system alert you if a document you are attempting to publish will not yield any searchable text.

5. IP.com Bundling

   Additional IP.com-generated information is bundled with your document into a single zip file. The bibliographic information, searchable text, fingerprint and datestamp information is prepared by IP.com and included along with your files into a single ZIP file that can be downloaded from IP.com.

6. Assigning IP.com numbers

   The newly generated package (the zip file) is assigned a permanent IPCOM number. IPCOM numbers are assigned to uniquely identify protected files at IP.com. Your package is given a number which can be used to reference it in future disclosures, patent applications, etc.

7. Publishing

   Your new disclosure is published and available online via the IP.com site, and you receive notification of the event.

8. Scan for newly published documents.

   A separate server under IP.com's control constantly scans the IP.com database for new disclosures. Once they are located, the package is downloaded. (This step is necessary to prove the file was accessible from outside IP.com's main system)

9. Notarization

   The downloaded package undergoes third party digital notarization (fingerprint & datestamp) to provide additional assurances as to the integrity of IP.com's data. This notarization is transmitted back to the servers at IP.com and stored with the publication.

10. New disclosures are printed in the subsequent issue of The IP.com Journal

    In the following edition of the Journal information about new disclosures (including fingerprint and datestamp) is published. The Journal is then sent to participating libraries worldwide - providing even further assurances as to the date and longevity of documents with IP.com.

Technical Disclosures

Patents are incredibly useful tools in that they give the inventor the right to exclude others from making, using or selling the patented invention. However, this exclusive right must be enforced. If someone is using an invention for which you have a patent, you can sue for infringement to reclaim damages, as well as force the offending party to stop. Unless you initiate the infringement proceedings (or the threat of infringement proceedings), there is nothing to make the offending party stop using your innovation. In essence, patents only have power if you are willing to stand up in court to defend them.

The problem is that obtaining patents is not a trivial process. Legal fees, filing fees, maintenance fees, and lost time by your R&D staff can be quite costly. Spending this kind of money on a powerful innovation that can return hundreds or thousands of times the investment is clearly worth it. Yet, only a small portion of the items from a typical invention review qualify as such. More often, the majority of ideas that result from an invention review are good ideas that, for one reason or another, do not end up patented.

Why?

Typically, there are a number of inventions on which you may already have partial patent protection. Inventions that improve upon an existing patented invention are good examples of this. Another reason you may not wish to obtain patent protection on good ideas, is that you don't expect to ever gain back the money that would be spent pursuing the patent. This is highly typical for inventions that improve the operation of some aspect of your business, but is not part of your general business strategy. (A computer chip manufacturer that finds a better way of packaging would be a good example. Packaging sales are not part of the core business, and most likely patents in this area would never be pursued.)

So what happens to the innovation I don't patent?

Typically, nothing. You are free to use your invention without a patent ... until someone else patents the idea. That's when the problem occurs. At this point, they could force you into paying licensing fees, or to stop using the innovation altogether. In essence, forcing you to stop using an idea you had first, but never patented.

If I had the idea first, doesn't that give me the right to use it?

Unfortunately, having the idea first doesn't do anything for you. The only way to prevent another patent from issuing, or defeating one that has already issued, is by being able to prove not only that the idea already existed, but that it was available to the public as well. This is where technical disclosure comes in. Innovation you do not patent is at risk of being patented by others. Publishing that innovation establishes a clear trail of evidence that you had this idea, and made it available to the public. Therefore, it should be considered "general knowledge" by the patent examiners, and not be allowed to be patented. In effect, allowing you to retain your right to use your own innovation, without the hassle and expense of obtaining patent protection.

Benefits

High visibility and accessibility

With the countless millions of websites in existence, and growing daily, the chances of an examiner finding relevant prior art on random corporate sites is unlikely. Even the best Internet search engines do not index every page of every website. When your innovation is published to IP.com, it joins the ranks of inventions from numerous other companies to form a comprehensive database of prior art. Patent examiners need only to search one location to find relevant prior art. Given the limited amount of time patent examiners have when reviewing patent applications, if your document is in a single, searchable location, it is much more likely to be found when it is needed most.

Adaptive to even the most aggressive publishing volumes

Publishing disclosures to industry journals is also lacking in many areas. Traditional publications are often limited by size, and editorial decisions are made regarding what to include and what not to include. However, your innovation isn't limited by the amount of available space in a publication, which means that a lot of material goes unpublished, and therefore, unprotected.

Used by leading technology companies and searched by worldwide patent examiners

Our database contains disclosures from companies such as Motorola, GE, Abbott Laboratories, and ChevronTexaco. Additionally, many other Fortune500 companies choose to publish anonymously to protect their identities. With companies such as these contributing to the volume, patent examiners have no choice but to search IP.com's Prior Art Database, and we have relations with various patent offices in order to allow them easier access to our data so they can do just that. Upon request from patent offices, IP.com will provide some/all of the following options: unlimited search and download, direct data feeds, and a subscription to IP.com Journal.

Unbiased 3rd party verification

Unlike documents on a corporate website, documents published with IP.com have left the hands of the authors. This means you can be assured documents in the IP.com database have not been tampered with or altered. To this end, IP.com employs sophisticated digital document datestamping, fingerprinting, and notarization to ensure that document integrity can be verified in the future, should the need arise.

Protection from competitive intelligence

IP.com also offers the option for corporations to publish anonymously. This is only possible when using a 3rd party publishing company. If you were to place all your innovations on your own website, your competitors would have instant access to your R&D efforts. Publishing anonymously with IP.com allows you to secure protection on your innovation without alerting your competitors to your current research efforts.

Data availability and redundancy

In addition to the data being available from IP.com, steps are taken to ensure your document's data is accessible from a variety of sources. IP.com provides free data feeds to any world patent office that requests this service. A limited number of alliance partners also receive copies of the IP.com data for integration into their own search systems. Additionally, IP.com publishes The IP.com Journal - a monthly printed digest (print & CD) of all disclosures from the previous month. The Journal is distributed to participating libraries worldwide.

Demo the Prior Art Database Publishing System

You can experience the ease and efficiency of our publishing system through our fully functional publishing demo.

Publishing Prices

You need a publishing voucher for each disclosure you publish to the IP.com Prior Art Database. Publishing includes online publishing of your documents as well as paper publication of the bibliographic information and abstract in the IP.com Journal. The table below indicates the pricing for publishing vouchers.

Please contact us for volume discounts at: pad-service@ip.com or 866.473.6826.
*Prices include a $10 per document maintenance fee covering 15 years from the publication date.

Printing options

You may wish to have the ENTIRE contents of your disclosure appear in the printed portion of the IP.com Journal. The IP.com Journal is printed twice each month and distributed to patent offices, libraries, and law offices around the world. During the publishing process, you have the option to choose the standard Journal listing (included with the publishing voucher) or to have the entire disclosure included. If you choose to have the entire disclosure appear in the Journal, one page-print voucher is consumed for EACH page of your disclosure. Page printing vouchers are priced as follows:

Please contact us for volume discounts at: pad-service@ip.com or 866.473.6826.

Publish your Technical Disclosure in Minutes

Defensive publishing is a fundamental component to a successful intellectual property program. The simple truth is that it works and anyone can do it. A defensive publication typically takes no more than one hour to write and can be uploaded in minutes.

Dramatically increase the odds that your prior art will be found and cited by publishing in a resource which is being accessed daily by patent examiners around the world - IP.com's Prior Art Database.