Help ! Someone is Patenting What I'm Doing

**monthlylocal** · 07-10-2009 04:20 PM

Hi Guys,

I am a little concerned this evening.

A company in the U.S has just had a patent pending published on a piece of software that I have just spent thousands having developed. The software is almost exact to what we are building here. Ours will be ready in about 2 weeks and they have been up and running for a few years.

Any ideas of how these things work and what my next step is? The patent has not been granted but was filed around 6 months ago and is still pending.

Must also mention I am in the UK, they are in the US

Many thanks

Trev

**danbu1** · 07-10-2009 08:27 PM

I own a couple of patents I started about 10 years ago.

From what I remember, the patent can be national or global. They have a limited time to go global if they did not choose that from the start. So you may still have a chance.

Even if it is filed only 6 months ago, they are protected from the first time their idea was documented. That goes for you also; if you can prove that you started your concept before they started theirs then their patent is no good. But good luck trying to prove that.

Anyway, I am going from memory so please do not take this as official advice.

Goodluck.

**monthlylocal** · 07-10-2009 10:00 PM

Having checked, I have found our demo video of our first trial run of the software which is from 6 months prior to their filing for a patent.

**Manny4life** · 07-10-2009 11:32 PM

Why don't you just contact your local patent office.

**Lambo** · 07-11-2009 02:13 AM

just prove that you had originally started the idea first and you should be fine.

**Desert_Star_Systems** · 07-13-2009 02:45 PM

Originally Posted by Manny4life

Why don't you just contact your local patent office.

+1 (but I think that is expensive, too?)

**nate_f2** · 07-13-2009 03:11 PM

I sent my ideas with a writing description and with photos of my designs to myself in the mail. Envelopes are dated and sealed. In your case it may be too late. I suggest you dont stop creating your design and speed up the process to get it out and in production, then if and when the legal issues start you can show when your demo video was recorded. If they have a patent on in the US it may not make a difference depending on what patent they got. Just keep doing what you are doing. Also I want to point out that since they are a big company then they may find your design better and buy it out from you for a large sum of money or hire you to work for them. That could be good thing. Its a rat race now you need to be on the ball with your program.