2

I already published my paper. [After filing provisional application]

A big company seems like copied my work from my paper and they are about to release their product in few months.

The reason I believe they copied my work is because of the following reasons.

  1. The technology I improved is a decade old technology.
  2. Almost 6 novel aspects are from my paper
  3. There is a prior art that was published 5 years back which would invalidate my independent claim if I hadn't noticed. But all the dependent claims would have been safe.

This big company exactly doing what the prior art says, but also going for my inventive steps.

This is a cutting edge work in tech. Without my step, the system would become a flawed system.

When I raised my concern to this big company CEO, he forwarded my concern to his lawyer.

To quote some of his lawyer words after going through my paper

We cannot evaluate that claim because your patent application does not appear in public searches of the United States Patent Office database, possibly because the Patent Office has yet to publish it. Additionally, any proposed claims in the patent application may change during prosecution at the Patent Office or could be rejected altogether, so there is no way to know what subject matter in the application may be patentable, if any at all. As a result, we cannot evaluate your allegations at present, nor can any product or service infringe unissued claims

The lawyer sounds like he knows they are infringing my work.

They didn't innovate anything on this matter. Not even a single step. But they are gonna release the product in the same year I published my work.

The publication of my patent application might take at least few months even if I go for early publication.

Since I already disclosed my paper to them, will there be any downside if I show my claims to that lawyer before my patent application publication?

3
  • 1
    How do you know that they didn't innovate on their own ? If they have a product ready to go at about the same time you are first publishing it seems they must have been working on it for a while.
    – George White
    Jul 6, 2019 at 19:16
  • DId you write the provisional application yourself?
    – George White
    Jul 6, 2019 at 22:55
  • Yes I wrote the provisional application myself. But for non-provisional I hired a firm. Jul 7, 2019 at 2:06

1 Answer 1

3

The letter from the lawyer is very logical and doesn't at all hint that they believe they are infringing anything. It just says that they can't evaluate your assertion that they are infringing since your application is not visible to the public and that whatever claims you might have in that application have not been granted. Of course, only a granted claim can actually be infringed.

They may have very well developed similar innovation to yours on their own and may even have filed their own patent applications. You need an attorney.

4
  • Thanks for the answer. Yes maybe I'm being delusional about the lawyer part. The reason I believe they are infringing my work is because my invention is a two part puzzle. You can't solve the puzzle 2 if you don't solve the puzzle 1. Right now they are directly going for puzzle 2 because since it would seem more obvious when you use the prior art. Yes, they may have a well developed similar innovation like mine, but something tells me they have seen my paper since their work contains 6 of my novel aspects. Jul 7, 2019 at 2:03
  • I shared it in a big community of engineers by the way. It's hard to miss. But yes you are right. I need an attorney. But my biggest concern here is whether I should show my claims to their lawyer or not before publication. Jul 7, 2019 at 2:04
  • Since you have worked with an attorney. please ask them, not us random people on the internet.
    – George White
    Jul 7, 2019 at 3:11
  • Ok thanks for the answer Jul 7, 2019 at 3:51

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .