Help with patent question

[bobfromutah]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? ca

I have come up with a great idea for a website and was moving forward with putting it together and then while searching patents on google I found that someone else has already covered it very broadly in a patent 8 years ago. I have searched extensively and there is no website that I can find where this person actually put this patent to use. Not to say that he is obligated to do so.
my site does encompass all of his ideas and a couple new ones..
can I patent the new idea and not worry about this guy popping up and wanting something or will he be involved?

 

[divgradcurl]

can I patent the new idea and not worry about this guy popping up and wanting something or will he be involved?

Nobody can answer that question except the current owner of the patent. You may want to discuss your situation with a patent attorney, who can review the patent and your website, and advise you accordingly as to whether he or she thinks it is likely that you would be infringing.

As you correctly note, there is no requirement under U.S. law for a patent holder to actually "practice" the patent themselves. A patent holder can, of they choose, sit on the patent and keep others from working in that space, for the life of the patent (20 years from filing).

EDIT: The fact that a patent holder is not practicing the patent does NOT mean that the patent is unenforceable, or that the patent holder has "given up" or is acquiescing to others practicing the invention. The only rule is that a patent holder must bring suit to enforce the patent within a reasonable time after they are on notice, or reasonably should have been on notice, of the infringing activities, and patent holders are barred from seeking damages that occured more than 6 years prior to bringing suit.

 

[bobfromutah]

Thanks divgradcurl,

Your advice pretty much confirmed what i was thinking about seeing a patent attorney and being positive about my position.
There was another part of my about me being able to patent over him if my patent had a few more aspects to it. Do you know anything about doing that?
It would seem to me that as long as it was more than he couldnt claim it.

 

[divgradcurl]

Thanks divgradcurl,

Your advice pretty much confirmed what i was thinking about seeing a patent attorney and being positive about my position.
There was another part of my about me being able to patent over him if my patent had a few more aspects to it. Do you know anything about doing that?
It would seem to me that as long as it was more than he couldnt claim it.

If you have added enough material to the underlying invention so that you have a patentably distinct invention, then you may be able to obtain your own patent. But remember -- a patent is a license to exclude, not a license to practice. In your case, if you obtained your patent, you would be able to keep the other guy from adding the same improvement to his invention, because you would hold a patent on the improved invention. But -- and this is the important issue -- you would not be able to practice your patent without a license from the other guy, because practicing you patent would necessarily infringe on the other patent.

If someone has a patent on A+B, you could obtain a patent on the improvement A+B+C -- but if you ever tried to use or build A+B+C, it would infringe on the patent for A+B.

Again, your patent attorney can help you sort through all of this.

 

[bobfromutah]

Thanks again,
I did read a thread that was discussing that and it got me wondering about method patents in contrast to trademarks.