Intellectual Property Law for Engineers, Scientists, and Entrepreneurs

Howard B. Rockman

• Publisher: Wiley-IEEE Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781119382010
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Derecho
• Subtopic: Derecho de la propiedad intelectual

Fully revised new edition that completely covers intellectual property law—and many related issues—for engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs

This book informs engineering and science students, technology professionals, and entrepreneurs about the intellectual property laws that are important in their careers. It covers all of the major areas of intellectual property development and protection in non-legalistic terms that are understandable to technology and science professionals. New material includes a comprehensive discussion on the American Invents Act (AIA), coverage of many new high-profile topics, such as patent protection the mobile communications industry, and a new chapter on "The Future of Technology, Engineering, and Intellectual Property."

Now in its second edition, Intellectual Property Law for Engineers, Scientists, and Entrepreneurs enables inventors and creators to efficiently interface with an intellectual property attorney in order to obtain the maximum protection for their invention or creation, and to take steps to ensure that that invention or creation does not infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others. It includes patent, trade secret, mask work, and cybersquatting legal and procedural principles. The book also shows readers how to properly use new vehicles of intellectual property protection for novel software, biotech, and business method inventions. Additionally, it examines trademark protection for domain names, and other ancillary matters that fall within the genre of intellectual property protection. This informative text:

• Covers all of the major areas of intellectual property development and protection in clear, layman's terms so as to be easily understood by technology and science professionals
• Provides detailed outlines of patent, trademark, copyright, and unfair competition laws
• Offers essays on famous and noteworthy inventors and their inventions—and features a copy of the first page of patents resulting from these inventors' efforts
• Covers many new high-profile cases covering patent protection within the mobile communications industry

Intellectual Property Law for Engineers, Scientists, and Entrepreneurs, Second Edition is an excellent text for graduate and undergraduate engineering students, as well as professionals and those starting a new technology business who need to know all the laws concerning their inventions and creations.

SECTION II
Patents

INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS
Charles Goodyear
VULCANIZATION OF RUBBER

Charles Goodyear was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in December 1800, and eventually entered the hardware business with his father. However, their hardware business failed in 1830, forcing father and son into bankruptcy. At that time, natural or “India” rubber had little usefulness to industry. Rubber products melted in hot weather, froze and cracked after becoming brittle in cold weather, and stuck to virtually everything they came in contact with.

After the failure of the hardware business, Goodyear tried selling a valve for rubber life preservers, but the rubber market was going down because of rubber’s aforementioned drawbacks. Hence, Goodyear decided he should try to revive the failing market. He began his research in jail, where he was serving time because of debt. In jail, Goodyear worked with rubber and a rolling pin for hours at a time.

Rubber, being a natural adhesive, was very sticky, so after being freed from jail, Goodyear decided to use a powder to dry out the rubber. He started with magnesia powder that he purchased at drugstores. The added magnesia made the rubber less sticky, and, armed with this improvement, he received some backing from a friend to make rubber overshoes. Before he could market them, however, summer arrived, and the shoes melted.

Goodyear started adding quicklime to his mix, and, at a trade show in New York, he was awarded a medal for his work.

One day in 1836, while working with rubber, he began to run low on samples, so he decided to melt down and reuse old rubber. By this time, Goodyear had started painting his samples, so he used nitric acid to remove the old paint, but the rubber turned black and he decided he could not use it. A day or so later, Goodyear noticed that the sample was smooth and dry, so he retrieved it from trash and started working with this new improved smooth rubber. He obtained more money based on this new rubber, but, after a vacation with his family, he returned to his nitric acid–treated rubber and found it was still the soft glue that it always was. By 1839, Goodyear was still experimenting, now using sulfur. One day, while showing off his new rubber formulation and getting nothing but laughs, he became furious, and the rubber slipped out of his hands, landing on a sizzling‐hot potbellied stove. Instead of melting the rubber, it charred into a leather‐like substance and around the burnt area was a springy brown part or “gum elastic.” Goodyear observed that heat was required to cure or strengthen a rubber–sulfur compound. This changed the rubber into an almost completely new substance. Goodyear had invented waterproof rubber, through what he called the “vulcanization” process.

Goodyear still needed to know how long to cook his rubber. This was the hardest time for Goodyear and his family as he spent even more time trying out heating techniques. He was forced to sell most of his family’s possessions, but then he finally found that steam, under pressure, applied for 4–6 hours at approximately 270°F, gave him the most uniform results. In 1844, Goodyear obtained a patent on his vulcanization process after spending 5 years developing the process. Vulcanization is a process in which sulfur reacts with carbon–carbon double bonds in the rubber to form “bridges” of sulfur atoms that cross‐link the molecules.

As you might expect, the principal use of Goodyear’s process is in the manufacture of tires, hoses, and footwear. Goodyear’s unique process strengthened rubber, made it resistant to heat and cold, and ultimately revolutionized the rubber industry. However, Goodyear was unable to profit financially from his discovery, although he did license his process. His numerous patents were continually infringed upon, and he spent large sums of money on unsuccessful businesses, costly experiments, and attempts to promote his process. The company that bears his name today was founded many years after Charles Goodyear’s death. He was able to establish his rights legally, but died in 1860 a poor man.

INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS
John Boyd Dunlop
PNEUMATIC VEHICLE TIRES

The wheel was invented around 3500 BC. Thousands of years later, the wheel is no longer made of wood, and the ride is much smoother. This is because of the pneumatic tire, developed by John Boyd Dunlop from Scotland.

Charles Goodyear invented vulcanized rubber in 1839 when he developed the vulcanization process, which made rubber more pliable and increased its rigidity and durability, allowing rubber to be used for a much wider array of purposes. Soon after the discovery of vulcanization, vehicle tires began to be made of solid rubber, and they were strong, absorbed shocks, and resisted cuts and abrasions. However, these solid tires were very heavy and failed to provide a smooth ride over the rough roads of the day.

In October 1887, John Boyd Dunlop developed the first practical pneumatic or inflatable tire. He put an experimental tire he built on his son’s tricycle in the yard of his home in Belfast, Northern Ireland, after fitting the tire to a wooden disc 96 cm across. He made his first tires by wrapping the solid rubber tires on his son's tricycle with glued rubber sheets, and filled the cavity with air.

He took this wheel and a metal wheel from his son’s tricycle, and rolled both of them across the yard together. The metal wheel stopped rolling, but the pneumatic wheel continued until it hit a gatepost and rebounded off the post. Dunlop then placed pneumatic tires on both rear wheels of his son's tricycle, and the tricycle's rolling improved. He then constructed larger tires for bicycles with even more startling results.

He began testing his pneumatic tires at a sports ground in Belfast, and obtained a patent on his pneumatic tires on December 7, 1888. However, completely unknown to Dunlop, another Scotsman, Robert William Thompson from Stonehaven, had patented a pneumatic tire in 1847. Thompson had earlier placed his tires on horse‐drawn carriages in London, but they never caught on, because at the time they were too expensive to manufacture. Frustrated with this result, Thompson turned to solid rubber tires for his future inventions. Hence, it might be said that John Dunlop “reinvented” the pneumatic tire.

In 1889, William Hume won a bicycle race in Ireland using Dunlop tires for the first time, and he subsequently won more races in England. Hume was the first member of the public to purchase a bicycle fitted with pneumatic tires, after Dunlop suggested that Hume use them in a race. On May 18, 1889, Hume won all four cycling events at the Queen’s College Sports Event in Belfast. A short time later, in Liverpool, he won all but one of the cycling events, lifting inflatable tires into the spotlight, and making them the standard for bicycles. Losers in the Liverpool event included the sons of the head of the Irish Cyclist Association, Harvey Du Cros. Du Cros saw an opportunity, and proceeded to build a personal relationship with Dunlop. Together, they formed a company, which acquired the rights to Dunlop’s patent.

Two years after Dunlop was awarded his patent, he was officially informed in 1891 that his patent was invalid, based on Thompson’s earlier patent, which issued in France in 1846 and in the United States in 1847. However, Dunlop and Du Cros continued to capitalize on pneumatic tires for bicycles, and they acquired a Dublin company and renamed it Pneumatic Tyre and Booth's Cycle Agency. Dunlop retired in 1895, and Du Cros sold the entire bicycle tire business in 1896 to a British financier, Terah Hooley, for £3 million. Hooley then made improvements, and resold the company to the public for £5 million. Du Cros remained head of the business until he died. Early in the twentieth century, the company was renamed Dunlop Rubber.

The production of automobile tires did not begin until 1900, well after Dunlop’s retirement. As a result, Dunlop did not acquire any considerable remuneration from his invention.

Inflatable tires provide a smoother ride and increased traction since the wheel deforms slightly when it meets the road, creating a friction bond between the vehicle and the road as the tire deforms and casts a wider and longer footprint. This is in contrast with solid rubber tires, which do not deform. For reasons that do not appear as clear as they should, solid rubber tires remain the material of choice for tricycle wheels, while today inflatable tires are the choice for bicycles and most other vehicles worldwide. At the time Dunlop came up with his invention, bicycles were becoming extremely popular, and the lighter, air‐filled tire resulted in a better ride with less vibration.

For 50 years after Dunlop’s invention, vehicle tires were made using an inner tube containing compressed air and an outer casing. The casing protected the inner tube and provided the tire with traction. The tire casing was reinforced with layers comprising rubberized fabric cords embedded in the rubber, and these were known as “bias ply tires,” since the cords in the single ply ran diagonally from the bead of one inner rim to the bead on another rim. The orientation of the cords is reversed from ply to ply, so the cords crisscross each other. Today, you can still find bias ply tires as equipment for antique and collector cars, and for various types of off‐road tractor tires. In 1948, steel‐belted radial tires appeared in Europe, and are so named because the ply cords radiate at a 90° angle from the wheel rim, such that the casing is strengthened by a belt of steel fabric extending around the circumference of the tire. Radial tire ply cords are composed of nylon, rayon, or polyester. The advantages of radial tires include longer tread life, improved steering, and less rolling resistance, which results in increased gas mileage. On the negative side, radial tires have a harder riding quality, and are also about twice as expensive to make as previous pneumatic tires.

3
Introduction to Patents

3.1 BRIEF HISTORY OF PATENT PROTECTION

3.1.1 Early European Patent Custom

It is commonly recognized that the history of patents is wrapped in obscurity and uncertainty. Prior to any patent system, there was a “patent custom” in many countries throughout Europe. Before the creation of the U.S. Constitution, the governments of several European countries granted exclusive rights in patentable and sometimes unpatentable subject matter as a “privilege” of the crown, rather than a property right available to all inventors. At the time the United States transitioned to a federal form of government under its Constitution, the patenting of inventions had been known and practiced in several countries for centuries. The “patent custom” that was known to the framers of the U.S. Constitution, simply put, was the practice of the state granting some form of limited‐term exclusive right to engage in a new trade or craft, sometimes denominated an industry, to the person or persons responsible for introducing that industry into the state, either by creation or importation. The privilege consisted of a temporary and exclusive right to commercialize the new subject matter, covered by the grant, whether it be called a patent, letters patent, or something else.

The early patent custom involved grants of privileges rather than property rights. The distinction between a patent privilege and a patent property right is an important one and not always recognized in the early literature of the patent law. Nonetheless, inventors, who had the most practical interest in obtaining exclusive rights to commercialize their inventions, were increasingly aware of the distinction, and, by the eighteenth century, they began to argue that they had a natural, inherent property right in their inventions, which it was the obligation of the state to protect, thus arguing that the state had no right to refuse granting them an exclusive position in their inventions for a limited time.

In an effort to encourage individuals who contributed to the advance of a culture, earlier governments recognized the “natural” right of a person to his or her own ideas and inventions, and strength...