Bux - Some basics of US patent law (Dave - feel free to comment):
1) You cannot patent an idea (or laws of nature or math algorithms), only a particular application of an idea. I know this sounds weird to a newcomer, but nonetheless, ... . One of the effects of this law is to limit the scope of each individual patent and make it hard to develop a block on all applications of a particular idea. For instance, power control would probably qualify as an 'idea' and thus not be protectable. Only particular implementations would be, on a case-by-case basis.
2) All patents must be for non-obvious applications of an idea. In addition to the primary problem with this law - that many of the best inventions are obvious after the fact - this non-objective wording means that it is hard for an application to be too broad and still receive a patent.
3) The US Constitution says that "Congress shall have power ... To promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." Thus, congress is not supposed to make laws to maximize ownership, but to maximize promotion of science. This feeling, although not often explicitly referenced back to the Constitution, often shows up in courts as a bias against providing a blocking patent as a 'restraint of trade'.
The net effect of all of this is that it is hard to receive a blocking (i.e. sweeping) patent. However, on the upside for Qualcomm, even for very broad ideas there are only so many good, easy-to-find implementations, and Qualcomm has had the field to themselves for so long that they probably own all the best IPR. BUT, that doesn't mean that Ericsson can't find some poorer veins of IPR and wend their way through the Qualcomm IPR. Ericsson should, however, expect it to take a lot of time and money. (In contrast, IBM recently announced a copper deposition process, and everyone else jumped on it. I suspect that the result of that is that IBM did not have time to find all of the best patents.)
Hope this helps.
Clark |
