Patent search vs Treble damage

[Kenneth Yip]

A scenario that is being asked a few of Petapator users:

"When I search patents, I may come across many patents. It is possible that my product may infringe one of the search patents. I may have or have not paid any attention to that patent. Will I be liable for treble damage? If Petapator does not display the patent number, other bibliography information and/or claims, will this lower the treble damage liability probability?"

Should Petapator have an option to remove patent number, other bibliography information and/or claims?

[coas...@gmail.com]

This seems to me to be like the ostrich putting its head in the sand. In most realms of law, "ignorance of the law is no excuse." If you find your product could infringe a patent you find with Petaptor, and you turn off the patent number and/or claims, you still know about the patent. A patent search should be your first action when you have conceived your product and are thinking of producing it. If you don't do the patent search, are you still liable for patent infringement? You could be, if an attorney could show that you willfully refrained from a patent search. Turning off particulars of a patent record seems a weak excuse for trying to avoid responsibility for verifying that your product doesn't infringe the rights of someone else.

[yes...@efn.org]

Who fucking cares? What i care about is that you have crippled Aspator, which used to be the most brilliant add-on imaginable. However, now it will not give me either the abstract or the drawings, but endlessly spinning balls instead. WHy bother with all these questions that appear to be fear-driven reactions to some stupid lawsuit or fantasy retaliation. OF COURSE crippling this wonderful thing makes it useless.  No one but a retard would do a prior art search with the patent numbers or claims turned off. And why is this brilliant addon no available for Safari??  I'm frankly ready to dump my Mac in the landfill because its been sodomized by Apple and a host of other greedy assholes.  Mr Yip, please tear down this wall....

[Kenneth Yip]

The Aspator is not working now because the Mozilla has not approved the new version.  I have developed a  new addon/website that you can try at http://m1.petapator.com for now.  Please let me know your comments about the site.  When I have time, I will modify Aspator to seamlessly work with USPTO website.  Alternatively, you can try Petapator that works with Chrome.

The biggest challenge for me is time.  I may need to hire some help when I have enough financial resources to do so.  Many years ago, I tried to port Aspator to Safari. It is possible but requires quite a lot of changes.  This is why I am thinking to use a website instead.  A much simple addon can then be developed to redirect USPTO search results to the website to display USPTO search results along with additional information, such as the diagram and patent family.

Regarding treble damage, seems hiding patent numbers or claims are not the right way and will probably be difficult to prove to the Court that there is no knowledge of others' patents.

 

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[Dennis Ramsey]

Mr. Yip,

You are a very generous genius who made patent searching simple and elegant, and I thank you a million times over for creating Aspator. I used it constantly when I did my prior art searches. For previewing vast amounts of information, the drawings and abstract functions are brilliant. I cannot imagine doing patent searches without Aspator. That’s why I was frustrated when I again began a prior art search and discovered that it no longer works. Sorry for the bad language in my email, but I was steamed.

It is so frustrating when Mozilla makes changes to Firefox that kills addons. My older PPC Powerbook was nearly bricked by upgrading to Lion, which I only did because Firefox no longer supported Panther, and I only wanted to use Firefox for Aspator. You can see my frustration...

Not sure what the treble damages argument is all about, but I gather that someone is making a big noise about doing a patent search with a crippled addon. Ignore them. Anyone who would do a patent search without regard to the claims or numbers is an idiot. Using Aspator as it was originally created obviates these concerns. I find it brilliantly convenient to instantly be able to pull down a drawing or abstract as I sift through a long list of patents. If someone turned off (if that’s even possible) the claims or numbers while doing a search, they are liable, not you. Keep up the good work Mr. Yip, and now that Aspator is known for what it can do, and now that it isn’t working, I think you’ve created enough market buzz, and you should start charging something for it so that you get some revenue from your excellent work!

Cheers,

DR

The Aspator is not working now because the Mozilla has not approved the new version.  I have developed a  new addon/website that you can try at http://m1.petapator.com for now.  Please let me know your comments about the site.  When I have time, I will modify Aspator to seamlessly work with USPTO website.  Alternatively, you can try Petapator that works with Chrome.

The biggest challenge for me is time.  I may need to hire some help when I have enough financial resources to do so.  Many years ago, I tried to port Aspator to Safari. It is possible but requires quite a lot of changes.  This is why I am thinking to use a website instead.  A much simple addon can then be developed to redirect USPTO search results to the website to display USPTO search results along with additional information, such as the diagram and patent family.

Regarding treble damage, seems hiding patent numbers or claims are not the right way and will probably be difficult to prove to the Court that there is no knowledge of others' patents.

 


On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 2:04 AM,  <yes...@efn.org> wrote:

[Dennis Ramsey]

Hello Kenneth,

I want to thank you very much for creating this brilliant Firefox plugin Aspator. It has revolutionized patent searching.

For quite some time I have been having trouble with Aspator because it will no longer allow me to see the abstract or the drawings of the patent results. All of the other shortcuts at the right side of the page appear, except the abstract and drawings. I found the mozilla page with all versions of Aspator and tried each of them, yet none of them work on my Mac OS 10.5.8, but at one time it worked perfectly. I checked my Firefox preferences to see if perhaps TIFF files were being interfered with by another plugin, yet find no TIFF in the file types at all. I’m unable to make Aspator work now. Something has changed and I cannot fix it. Do you have any idea what has happened to this beautiful addon you created? I have also tried the petapator site yet it does not work for me.

Thank you,
DR

[Kenneth Yip]

Hi Dennis,

Could you let me know which version of Aspator and Firefox are you
running? If possible, please send me the screen dump as well.

Thanks

Kenneth