Well, after almost 4 years and LOTS of money I now hold a patent in a photoshop process to do color seperation/changes. This was done to protect our software and now I am much more at ease with the whole situation. The patent is in how we convert an image to change color dynamically.

Now for our patent party.


Carter

You can a patent series of commands/processes used in Photoshop?

Yes you can? It actually a patent that covers photo-editing software, so it could include other graphic applications.

Carter

Yes you can? It actually a patent that covers photo-editing software, so it could include other graphic applications.

Carter

OK, so you have a patent on your software or a series of commands/processes that is used in other software applications?

commands/processes that is used in other software applications..

commands/processes that is used in other software applications..

Cool that you could do that. I would have never guessed it was possible :cool:

Cool that you could do that. I would have never guessed it was possible :cool:

I've got one in the pipeline that defines a mathematical method of determining software maintenance release cycles based on the number of bugs being fixed.

It falls into the Process Patent class.

my grandfather has a patent on his wall we he invented the saw horses with the collapsable legs. the army and some private investor contacted him about purchasing the rights to it but he was holding off for other offers so a privet company went ahead and made them anyway so he calls the patent office and his lawyer and the company takes all the sawhorses off the market until they realized that he didnt have enough money to fight them and the gov't wasnt going to help. so everyone sells his saw horses now and he has a really cool plaque on the wall

my point here is whats the point in spending thousands on a patent like he did and then the gov't wont help you when it is infringed upon

my point here is whats the point in spending thousands on a patent like he did and then the gov't wont help you when it is infringed upon

The USPTO is a "registrar," not an advocate. They just record (in actuality, patent prosecution is a lot more complex than that) the facts. It's up to the owner of the patent to protect it... and failure to do so is actually grounds for losing patent protection altogether. In other words, "use it or lose it."

It's unfortunate that your grandfather lost out on whatever wealth may have come from his invention.