What is a PatentApple’s iOS and Smartphone

Patent War

Dr. Tal Lavianhttp://cs.berkeley.edu/~tlavian

tlavian@cs.berkeley.eduUC Berkeley Engineering, CET

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Innovation: long-term health

You need a healthy root system for the tree to flourish!

Innovation!

Patents

Software

Ideas

Knowledge

Work Processes

Creativity

Skills

Trade Secrets

Inventions

Secret sauce

Concepts

What is a Patent?

A form of intellectual propertyA grant of an exclusionary property right to

an inventor by the governmentPrevents the use of an invention by others for

the duration of the patent In return, the inventor must fully disclose the

details of the invention to the public (the quid pro quo)

Patents

Protects an idea, not an implementationPatent owner can keep others from using the

invention (they would be infringing) or license it

Patent ownership (assignment) can be bought, sold or traded

What is a Patent? (Cont.)

Right to exclude the making, using, selling, offering for sale or importation of an invention (may not “infringe”)

Limited time (typically 20 years from the date of filing with USPTO)

Limited geographic territory (issuing country)

Monopoly awarded by the government forsharing the invention with the public

What Can Be Patented?

“Everything under the sun made by man.” Products: things Processes: ways to make things Methods: ways to do things

Improvements: better things Defined Classes

Article of Manufacture Machine Composition Process

Some more: Business Methods Services Software

What Is Not Patentable

Laws of nature (wind, gravity) Physical phenomena (sand, water) Abstract ideas (mathematics, a philosophy) Algorithms (e.g., abstract math) Anything not useful, novel and non-obvious (perpetual motion

machine) Inventions which are offensive to public morality or designed

for an illegal activity Inventions that cannot be implemented using

current technology (enablement)

http://mimiandeunice.com/2012/08/27/achoo-again/

Types of Patents

Design The distinctive look

Plant New or discovered asexually reproduced plant

Utility Patent Process, machine, manufacture, composition of

matter, improvements

Types of Patents

Type Is for Term #s

Utility Function, use 20 years

6,214,874

Design

Appearance 14 years

D202,331

Plant Asexually reproduced

20 years

PP10123

Design Patent Example

Utility Patents

Most applicable to electronics and software engineers

Usually the most valuable, complex and difficult to obtain

Must satisfy key criteria: Invention must be

Useful Novel Non-obvious

Patents Must Be Useful

Useful – process, method Meets a need or solves a problem Fills current or anticipated need Can be “reduced to practice”, operated or

enabled (e.g., can be built, is functional) Can be an improvement (better

mousetrap)

Utility Patents Must Be Novel13

oMust be new oNot done before in substantially the same way

oNo “Prior Art”oNot known to the public before it was invented

Not described in a publication (*)Not used or offered for sale publicly (*)

o Includes your own work

* more than one year before filing patent application

Novelty Considerations

How “broad” is the inventionWhat problem(s) it solvesHow it solves the problem(s)If the structure is known, are elements used

in a new way?If the function is known, is a new problem

solved?

Utility Patents Must Be Non-Obvious

Would not have been obvious to one “skilled in the art” to do this Includes combining different prior art

Must not be trivial or insignificant Examples

Substituting one material for another Changing the size (miniaturization) Changing implementation (software or

hardware, custom ASIC)

How Much Prior Art

For Anticipation A single piece of prior art practices all the

elements of a claim (e.g., the claim “reads on” this single reference)

For Obviousness Usually more than one reference used to practice

the claim Could be one reference PLUS the knowledge of

the “Person Having Ordinary Skill in the Art”, aka PHOSITA

Secondary ConsiderationsIn Addition to Prior Art

Mobile OS

The major mobile operating systems which are in practical use are Android (Google’s), iOS (Apple’s), BlackBerry OS (RIM’s) and Windows Mobile OS (Microsoft’s). The major mobile operating systems which are in practical use are Android (Google’s), iOS (Apple’s), BlackBerry OS (RIM’s) and Windows Mobile OS (Microsoft’s).

iOS

iOS’s main features include:o Home screeno Folderso Notification Centero Default APPso Multitaskingo Switching applicationso Game Center

Cisco has the trademark for ‘IOS’; Apple licenses the usage of ‘iOS’ from Cisco

iOS

iOS is a Unix based OS.iOS uses four abstraction layers namely: the

Core OS layer, the Core Services layer, the Media layer, and the Cocoa Touch layer. 

iOS

First version of iOS is released in 2007 with the mane ‘OS X’ and then in 2008 the first beta version of ‘iPhone OS’ is released.

In 2007 September Apple released first iPod Touch that also used this OS.

In 2010 iPad is released that has a bigger screen than the iPod and iPhone

iOS

iOS is Apple’s proprietary mobile operating system initially developed for iPhone and now extended to iPAD, iPod Touch and Apple TV.

Initially known as iPhone OS, in June 2010 it is renamed as iOS.

iOS is not enabled for cross licensing, it can only be used on Apple’s devices.

The user interface of iOS is based on the concept of usage of multi touch gestures.

Apple’s App store contains close to 550,000 applications as of March 2012.

It is estimated that the APPs are downloaded 25B times till now.

Smartphone Patent War – Apple

Apple has had major litigation over patents with:HTCMotorolaSamsungNokia

Smartphone Patent War – Apple

Reasons Apple can pursue such extensive litigation: Almost $100B in cash available

Patent litigation is very expensive Large patent portfolio

Makes it easier to claim competing products are infringing something

Smartphone Patent War –Apple & Samsung

Interesting relationship Dependent upon one another

Samsung enables Apple’s manufacture of tens of millions of units by providing semiconductors

Apple provides Samsung with lots of business

Smartphone Patent War –Apple & Samsung (cont.)

In litigation over the similarities between iDevices and Samsung’s Galaxy line Has resulted in product bans in multiple

countries Still not over

Nonetheless, effort to keep legal battles and business dealings separate due to interdependency

Smartphone Patent War – Apple

What are Apple’s motivations?

Smartphone Patent War – Apple

What are the costs to Apple for litigating so much over smartphone and tablet technology?

Smartphone Patent War

Next week’s topic – MICROSOFT, ANDROID