I've been once before a judge, and before numerous arbitration panels (usually three engineer/lawyer types)... never before a jury.
I can't imagine how one would explain technology to Joe Average.
It's difficult enough here in S.E.D ;-)
...Jim Thompson
BE QUIET! If I can patent the idea of using two resistors as a voltage divider, my employer will hand me a $2,000 cash bonus, no questions asked. There is no limit on the number of these bonuses that can be collected per year. In fact, it's the only way one can get an effective raise greater than 10%.
In that case perhaps look at the spark gap transmitters developed by Marconi or Poulsen. AFAIR they used the negative resistance of an arc in association with a self-tuned LC tank.
That's a tough one, since once you've seen a lot of gadgets they look "obvious".
That's more like prior art, rather than the "obvious" argument, no?
"Tony Williams" a écrit dans le message de news: snipped-for-privacy@ledelec.demon.co.uk...
Plus a spark gap arc is a kind of CCFL, no?
Sort of. It's a discharge lamp, which could become an actual arc if the current was allowed to rise too high.
"Tony Williams" a écrit dans le message de news: snipped-for-privacy@ledelec.demon.co.uk...
I meant, no only that's prior art wrt the "self learning inverter", but it also can be viewed as applicated to lighting with just the right amount of twisting. This could make the basis of a funny argument in court :-)
But-but - where's the "fluorescent" part? ;-)
Cheers! Rich
The prior art - the Jim Williams application notes - describe a system that self-oscillates at the resonant frequency of the transformer. The step to a system that actively determines the resonant frequency and drives the transformer at that frequency strikes me as obvious to those skilled in the art.
Judges are also perfectly capable of being stupid. EMI in England invented modern television a few months before RCA in the U.S.A. which lead to a monster court case, in which a U.S. judge let himself be persuaded by RCA that quadrature moduation was different from sin/cos modulation. One my friends in England was involved in the case when he was very young, which has contributed to his very cynical approach to patent law.
Most patent cases don't come to court. The one time I was involved, my employer spent more money on lawyers while deciding not to fight the case than they spent on the development work tat had provoked the writ. They'd originally had counsel's opinion that the patent involved wasn't strong enough to justify a court case, but the counsel onvolved changed his mind when he saw the inventor's writ.
--------------------- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen
"Jim Thompson" a écrit dans le message de news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...
Well in the same vein, have a look at how clocks work :-)
I bet you can get as far as the first sustained oscillator was invented.
Hello Jim,
In case you have to convince a jury really old prior art may not be so powerful. But there ought to be lots of newer stuff that at least some jurors would likely have been using a long time ago. I remember that when I was a kid I repaired a few inverters for travel trailers. From the days when fluorescents came only for mains voltage but you had to run them off the trailer or car battery. Some of these inverters were saturation controlled, others were resonant schemes and those might fit into this case. This had been in Europe but one of the US models was made by Trippe Mfg. Co. in Chicago.
As other have said, often employers are enticing their EE staff to patent as much as they can. Then there are the poor lads who think that a patent, any patent, is a ticket to riches. After they have blown a few thousand for progressive maintenance fees and maybe $10k or so on attorney filing help they often realize that it was hot air.
Regards, Joerg
Hello Jim,
You can but you need a physical example and then explain how it works without exceeding 8-10th grade level physics and math. As long as some of the jurors understand it and consequently develop serious doubt about the patent in question. Done it many times, usually to bankers with almost zero technical background.
ROFL!
Regards, Joerg
Systems which optimise power transfer, by deliberately adjusting the frequency such that the voltage and current are in phase have been around for many years. In fact Speff was muttering here (a few years ago) about a patented electromechanical hopper feed system which did exactly that.
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required