Questions tagged [discussion]
The discussion tag has no usage guidance.
118 questions
48
votes
2
answers
15k
views
I want to make a difference - how can I submit prior art to the Patent Office?
I want to stop a patent from being granted in error. I know that finding prior art is just step one. And it's clear that being able to succinctly describe its significance to the claims is step two. ...
- 359
27
votes
3
answers
452
views
Is this site only and specifically for the USA patent system?
In our new site's "About" page we have this:
Ask Patents is a collaboratively edited Q&A site for patent experts and inventors to:
Solicit help finding prior art that might apply to a ...
- 275
24
votes
2
answers
2k
views
How Do I Write a Prior Art Request for a U.S. Patent Application?
It's a bit difficult to capture the essence of what a patent is about in the space of a title. Unfortunately, patent numbers and legal jargon doesn't really tell anyone about the inherent issues ...
- 613
15
votes
3
answers
296
views
Ask Patents needs a cleanup
Ask Patents has attracted a ton of low quality questions. Stuff like https://patents.stackexchange.com/questions/9976/i-am-install-softwayers-games-or-many-think. There's also a good number of ...
- 103
15
votes
1
answer
296
views
How to challenge a patent application
How do I challenge a patent application? In other words, I'm supposed to be able to use this site to challenge the community to find prior art. So, for example, here's a patent application that looks ...
- 1,204
14
votes
3
answers
783
views
Would you be interested in Moderating this site?
Greeting all! It's time to see if we can get some Moderators for this site!
Most Stack Exchange sites (like Ask Patents) are generally self-moderated by the community. The combination of voting, wiki-...
- 613
13
votes
1
answer
211
views
Should we appoint pro-tem moderators?
I'll admit that I'm not an overly frequent user of Ask Patents, but as someone who does pop on from time to time, I see quite a few straight-up bad questions.
As I understand it, AP is currently ...
- 1,159
11
votes
1
answer
279
views
Will obviousness be in play at all?
I understand the primary goal for AskPatents is to crowdsource the discovery of prior art. I think it's brilliant.
However, there will still be a lot of patents that will not be invalidated by ...
- 151
9
votes
2
answers
165
views
Are questions of the form 'Can anyone find prior art for patent X' on topic?
Are questions that attempt to crowd-source the prior art gathering process going to be on topic/allowed?
I'm thinking about questions along the lines of:
I'm being sued by company X regarding ...
- 101
9
votes
2
answers
140
views
Is posting your own original invention on-topic?
There are some recent posts using ask patents as a vehicle to document/"publish" the poster's own inventions that are improvements to cited patent documents and to solicit joint invention via AP. My ...
George WhiteMod
- 30.7k
8
votes
3
answers
156
views
Are questions about software licensing on topic?
I'm sure many of you got invited to this private beta because you had previously supported the Software Licensing SE on Area51, so I feel like this will be a useful question.
Software patents and ...
- 226
8
votes
3
answers
426
views
How can I find the best patent applications to challenge (by requesting prior art)?
What is the best way to find/search/browse questionable patent applications so that I can then search for prior art to be submitted to the USPTO.
I'm familiar with Google Patent Search but it's very ...
- 621
7
votes
1
answer
165
views
Is there a plan to enable preissuance submissions of prior art directly through this site?
Because preissuance submissions can be submitted for free if it's your first and only submission for a particular application and you're not submitting more than 3 documents, is there any plan to ...
user755
6
votes
2
answers
232
views
What is the rationale for having the patent number as a tag?
This seems to clutter the system, and i didn't see a given rationale in the FAQ.
- 1,001
6
votes
2
answers
138
views
Who are the folks here and how are our answers used?
I have been curious about this - I see a lot of prior art requests that get posted and I/other people have been answering some of them. I think it's great to have visibility on some of the prior art ...
- 460
6
votes
2
answers
91
views
Patent classification tags and tag wikis
Do tag the question with more general categories that others might subscribe to. For this example, tags like wireless-networks or information-security (the USPTO's classification) might be useful.
...
5
votes
2
answers
70
views
Should we include the prepended year in the [us2012abcdefg] tag structure?
Some tags currently have it, and some do not:
Let's standardize this. Additionally, we should decide whether or not to include the "A1" (which means that this is a patent's first filing) at the end ...
- 264
5
votes
1
answer
199
views
How is this experiment going?
I am new to the site and have spent quite a bit of time reading and trying to learn the ropes and to post helpfully over the last few days. Activity seems very low right now. Maybe the widespread ...
George WhiteMod
- 30.7k
5
votes
1
answer
129
views
@pops - please learn more about Ask Patents
You recently deleted a post as "only asking about how the patent system works in general". How the US patent system works is exactly one of our two on-topic subjects. You also thought the questioner ...
George WhiteMod
- 30.7k
5
votes
1
answer
130
views
Can I withdraw an answer when a better one is posted?
I answered a question in the main section by describing some of the considerations in evaluating copyright issues generally. A later answer directly addressed the actual question, rendering my more ...
- 1,728
5
votes
1
answer
93
views
How did this site get out of beta?
Ask patents to me appears, whilst possibly useful, to be significantly less healthy and less active than what Stack Exchange typically expects from a site before graduation. How did Ask Patents get ...
- 163
5
votes
1
answer
158
views
Can we put up a blanket disclaimer of legal advice so that no answer, regardless of its source, can be taken as legal advice?
I have noticed a couple of bios with disclaimers to the effect that "no answer offered on this site is legal advice - consult an attorney - etc."
I am in the same or similar circumstance as some ...
- 1,728
5
votes
2
answers
182
views
Are patent examiners and other industry officials visually distingushable from "normal" users?
This site is unusual in the sense that a small subset of people (i.e. the patent examiners and similar industry officials) will be playing a very distinct role on this site, different from the average ...
- 101
4
votes
1
answer
66
views
Did the rep level for edit and close-votes just get changed?
Did the rep level for edit and close-votes just get changed? Last month I was able to participate in close-voting and edits, but not I have lost those privileges.
I don't see any meta question ...
- 688
4
votes
1
answer
101
views
Why do we have so many posts that do not mention the patent number in question? And why so many are off-topic?
Why are there so many posts that do not mention the number but seem to think we know what they are referring to ? Also why do we get so many strangely off-topic questions and can that be mitigated?
George WhiteMod
- 30.7k
4
votes
1
answer
60
views
Frequent Down Voting
It seems the recently there has been an increase in down voting on answers. While I'm fine with criticism, I think just down voting without providing a comment on the reasoning is unhelpful. How does ...
- 11.7k
4
votes
1
answer
131
views
What is the purpose of interpreting claim language into plain English?
This practice seems like it is ripe for misinterpretation of the claim language itself. How do we make sure that we aren't losing necessary meaning when doing this?
- 1,001
4
votes
2
answers
119
views
What to do to get this site more attention?
There are 12 users that have received more than 10 reputation in the last month and 22 with more than 100 in the last year, number one beeing somebody who hasn't been here in that year. I don't think ...
user18033
4
votes
2
answers
78
views
Has Ask Patents impacted frivolous patent claims?
I just read about the site's mission against frivolous software patent claims. I'm really intrigued by the idea and I wanted to know how much of an impact it has had since its inception. I wasn't able ...
- 101
4
votes
1
answer
205
views
What Counts as "Prior Art" for a U.S. Patent Application?
When I looked at Online Shopping - Social Feedback on Clothing - Patent Application - PRIOR ART REQUEST, the first thing I thought of was people on Facebook linking to Amazon or other store pages so ...
- 101
4
votes
1
answer
90
views
How do we feel about client solicitations as answers?
I'm referring specifically to this answer here. Is this allowed, and should it be?
- 499
4
votes
2
answers
257
views
Why would I submit prior art here for patent 5,491,834 when Article One Partners will pay me?
I see Article One Partners has a research study for US5491834. Why would anyone post prior art at Ask Patents for granted patents?
user1342
4
votes
2
answers
115
views
Rename the overused/misused [patentability] tag
The [patentability] tag is supposed to be for questions about patentability law — i.e. Questions about what conditions must be met for a patent to be held valid. But the [patentability] tags is ...
- 613
4
votes
1
answer
95
views
Flagging / Deletion of dangerous wrong advice answers
I have noticed a flag to an answer of mine beeing declined with the reason
flags should not be used to indicate technical inaccuracies, or an altogether wrong answer
While I certainly understand ...
user18033
3
votes
1
answer
122
views
Answers - What should an ideal prior art response look like?
What should a prior-art defense look like? Is it sufficient to cite something similar to the invention in question? Or does there need to be clear evidence of substantially similar implementations?
...
- 111
3
votes
1
answer
85
views
Should the design of this site incorporate some ideas from skeptics.stackexchange.com?
Please have a look at Stack Exchange's site for skeptics , which is:
A site for challenging unreferenced notable claims, pseudoscience and biased results
Patents SE (our site) serves a similar ...
- 702
3
votes
2
answers
183
views
Why can't I see Patents SE in the Stack Exchange homepage?
Why is Ask Patents not present in the above grid?
- 101
3
votes
2
answers
56
views
Would Ask Patents consider merging with a more general "IP Law" Q&A site?
I do realize this is a nice little treasure-trove of patent Q&As, but so far it's the only IP-related Q&A site on SE. I see there are proposals in Area 51 for a Copyrights Q&A site and an ...
- 175
3
votes
1
answer
99
views
I only want to discuss the patent, not ask a question, but there's only the question option; why?
I wanted to "Discuss This Patent" but all I'm allowed to do is ask a question. How can I discuss the patent just in itself, instead of having to ask a question? I don't understand why Google ...
3
votes
1
answer
153
views
Now -- how is this experiment turning out?
A more pointed version of my previous question. Besides a general slow-down, we are starting to get more questions regarding the poster personally getting a patent than questions about stoping bad ...
George WhiteMod
- 30.7k
3
votes
1
answer
42
views
Should the on-topic page reflect questions about tools used with patents?
Speaking in response to this question, How often is Google Patents updated?, and specifically Robert's comment on it, I'd like to see the help center updated to include that questions about specific ...
- 1,159
3
votes
1
answer
58
views
What Type of Questions is This Site For?
I'm relatively new here, so I'm still trying to get the hang of what sorts of questions are really appropriate here. I'm used to Stack Overflow, where questions are a little more generally applicable. ...
- 1,159
3
votes
3
answers
102
views
Should country tags use abbreviations or full names?
A handful of tags have emerged to identify the country to which the question pertains. We've got uk, usa, and united-states.
Should we be using abbreviations (UK, USA) or full names (United-States, ...
- 580
3
votes
2
answers
111
views
Site Updates are Live!
A majority of the changes are not visible; these tweaks go along with recent updates that were made to Stack Overflow:
We updated the site's CSS to a newly refactored LESS system, so that it's easier ...
- 101
3
votes
1
answer
74
views
Make some posts disappear?
We are starting to get quite a few posts that are not spam but are so far off they are cluttering up the site and possibly being hit in searches and attracting more similar posts. Is there a way to ...
George WhiteMod
- 30.7k
3
votes
0
answers
32
views
"Six month post grant review" ?? I assume this has been added to the boiler plate? It is not correct
From the USPTO FAQs on this program: it is in effect only for applications with a filing date after March 15,20013
It is nine months not six months. It is not a "send in documents" program. It is a ...
George WhiteMod
- 30.7k
3
votes
0
answers
45
views
Are we limited to US patents? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Is this site only and specifically for the USA patent system?
Are the questions here limited to the US patent system? Can I ask questions about the UK patent system? Can I ask ...
- 382
2
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Is Times New Roman the right font for the site?
I find that Times New Roman, while giving an official look to text, significantly increases eyestrain over the sans serif fonts. This is particularly true when large blocks of text are encountered, ...
- 101
2
votes
1
answer
81
views
Can I publish my invention here on SE as in the public domain?
I am afraid most if not all of my inventions will never be realized. I would rather give away life saving inventions then let them die with me.
Is this a good place to put my invention for the world ...
- 1
2
votes
2
answers
53
views
What is the best way to post figures in questions and answers?
The mark down for figures is quite clear. This question is about where to get figures from.
The boilerplate for prior art requests contains a figure from the patent application. See for example this ...
- 786