I wrote a mobile application - I want a patent
“I wrote a mobile application - I want a patent!” Is the most typical phrase a patent researcher hears when a developer comes to him.
But not everything is so simple. A mobile application is a whole bunch of technical solutions, and therefore potential inventions.
A novice inventor should remember that an invention is one improvement, be it a new type of active user interface element, a new way of processing and transmitting information to the server, or the concept of the application as a whole.
')
Let's take an example of such giants as Apple ™ and Yandex ™ to analyze several scenarios of searching for an invention in an IT solution.
Why did the developer need a patent: to prove that he is cooler than Google, to fool the investor or to hang with satisfaction in the toilet , is a topic for a separate article. In this article, the main thing is to show which side to look at your creation in order to find an invention there.
We will consider first Russian patents, since patent legislation in our country has its own characteristics and differs from similar in other countries. The examples are primarily used patents Apple ™ and Yandex ™, because they are described in detail from a technical point of view and well-formed - from a legal point of view, they should be equal.
Often, developers take as a basis some well-known application, remove some functionality from there, and run to file a patent application.
For example, the developer wants to create a hotel database, but he does not need a booking function. The purpose of the application is purely informational, i.e. what hotel is the user and information about him. Unfortunately, Booking ™, Google ™ and Tripadvisor ™ are able to do all this along with a bunch of other options.
Conclusion: the solution will not become patentable if any functionality is removed from a known product.
Advice to the developer: you need to come up with a new, your own functionality, which “is in causal connection with the technical result”, i.e. translated from patent to human bears some benefit. You will hear this phrase more than once from patent specialists and experts of the Patent Office.
Sometimes the developer, trying to alleviate the difficult fate of the user of social networks, or trying to eclipse the glory of Facebook ™, offers new options for presenting content to the user.
For example, a developer wants to visualize a ribbon, painting posts in various colors on topics or suggesting that a user paint a message in a mood-appropriate color: red — anger, green — new, violet — indifference, etc.
The solution seems cool, and the user should be comfortable, but the patent legislation in Russia does not allow patents as inventions to deal only with appearance, aimed at satisfying aesthetic needs and consisting only in the presentation of information ( Art. 1350 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation ).
Conclusion: Rospatent will refuse to patent the invention, if the chip is only in visual appeal, convenience or clarity of design.
Advice to the developer: you can think about the protection of the design, for example, apply for an industrial design.
In half of the cases, in response to the question “What's new in your decision?”, You get the answer: “Source code!”. The developer believes that his invention is a super-optimized source code or code in which no one will ever figure it out.
Conclusion: Such solutions are a priori non-patentable, since belong to copyright and are classified as a literary work, and the right to them is not necessary to register - it appears automatically from the moment of publication of this work.
Advice to the developer: there is a chance that the algorithm will be patentable, i.e. a sequence of actions that the program executes, and not the source code, as a way of operating the software product.
To understand which aspects of mobile applications are hypothetically patentable, let us show a few examples.
The concept of a mobile application, implemented in user interactions, ways of presenting information, organizing social services or,God forbid , a new messenger, can be patentable.
The concept of the collector of letters is described in the patent RU 2485706 by Yandex ™. When a user has several e-mail boxes, he is able to process all messages in one mailbox using the mailbox interface of the receiving box.
The same company offers a concept application tips to the driver how to drive a particular section of the road ( RU 2629875 ). The application analyzes how another vehicle drove this area, taking into account its characteristics, the geolocation of the road section, its condition, weather conditions and vehicle parameters of the driver himself. After that, the user can hear advice from his smartphone, for example, “Slow down speed”, “Change gear” or “Turn on the headlights”. The patent does not say, but the application, probably, could also release snide remarks related to the same advice or driving style of the driver.
Figure patent RU 2629875 .
Another example from Yandex ™ is a solution for determining the mode of operation of traffic lights ( RU 2580428 ), which is based on the logs of navigation devices and the characteristics of their movement in the traffic light zone, according to which their mode of operation is determined.
Now you can not imagine a mobile device without electronic assistants. Patent RU 2541221 from Apple ™ is one of the fundamental decisions for the functioning of an intelligent automated assistant. The helper receives a request from the user based on voice input and implements its textual interpretation. Based on the request, the application determines the task to be performed by the mobile device, and then presents the user with a task rephrasing, which includes the formulation of the task in natural language.
An example of the work of an electronic assistant from Apple ™. Figure patent RU 2541221
With this patent there are several more related to the same subject, for example, a personalized dictionary for digital assistant ( RU 2541219 ), prioritizing selection criteria by means of an intelligent automated assistant ( RU 2546606 ), deducing the user's intention based on previous interactions with voice assistant ( RU 2544787 ) .
Apple ™ still has a patent RU 2542937 on how to use contextual information to automate user interaction with an electronic device through voice input, interpreting ideas of the user's intentions, for use in virtual assistants.
Patent advice: Usually, systems or methods are patented as concepts and use a technical result - “expanding the arsenal of tools”, which is sometimes the official version for such useful effects as enhancing user convenience or raising awareness, which the Patent Office of Russia usually does not consider technical.
If the concept is no longer new, but you want to make your contribution, you can play with a modification of the known solutions.
The Yandex patent ™ RU 2632424 describes a method for making the synthesized voice more “humane”, i.e. add speech attributes: emotions, gender and other features. Teach voice using deep neural network based on training text data and corresponding training acoustic data.
Image processing can also be attributed to data processing. In the patent RU 2632272 a method is proposed for creating panoramic images taking into account the correction of objects that have changed their location in the process of shooting. For example, the same bird flew and flew and found itself on different pieces of the panorama. The developers propose to cut this bird out of one piece, leaving it only on the other, for which they compare at least three photos taking into account the time of shooting and synthesize the image.
Another example of image processing is an image scanner application from RU 2587406 . According to the invention, the user on the display selects the area that he wants to recognize. The smart application analyzes whether there are any important parts of the text associated with the recognized piece outside the area allocated by the “stupid” user. If the application finds such a text, it also recognizes it, despite its non-entry into the selection area.
The lion's share of data processing patents relates to the processing and analysis of geodata, for example, the user's location for his own benefit — navigation — or for business benefit — geo-targeting.
Patent RU 2632189 proposes to send messages to the user based on its location, which satisfies the criterion of two areas and the duration of its location in these areas. For example, the user is now in a shopping center — the first area — and the second area is approaching a specific store. If the application believes that the user is in the second area for a long time, then classifies this area as a point of interest (POI) and sends the user a message (read - advertising), which corresponds to the first and second areas.
Patenting advice: The key object of patenting for this type of solution is the method, i.e. a sequence of actions that a software product performs by sending, processing and generating data using a server, a microcontroller, and other devices. In order for Rospatent not to recognize such a method as “economic activity”, it is necessary to describe the “iron” on the basis of which the method is built, i.e. what devices your application interacts with.
A key element of any mobile application is user data security. Patentable solutions here can be methods of protecting transmitted or stored information used in the operation of the application, whether it is bank data or the recipe for the cake of your beloved grandmother.
For example, a Yandex ™ RU 2580432 patent is devoted to blocking a user's activity if the model of his behavior differs from the model in his account.
This also includes a method of protecting data when a mobile device interacts with a computer ( RU 2628924 ) or a method of blocking access to data on mobile devices using the API for users with disabilities ( RU 2618946 ) from Kaspersky Lab ™.
Patent advice: Here, the methods and systems can be the objects of patenting, and the technical result is often the increase in data security.
Here, the interface should be understood not how the application looks, but how it interacts with the user.
The most obvious example is unlocking a smartphone by swiping your finger upwards on the screen - the swipe patented by Apple ™ back in 2005 ( US 8046721 ).
A very fresh example of the interface (publication date 04/10/2017) is the vision of Yandex ™ of the keyboard of the future for gadgets. The company offers instead of the classic pop-up keyboard to use a character input area, for example, of three parts: on the right is the symbol selection tool, in the center is the information field, on the left is the confirmation button.
The patented keyboard interface from Yandex ™. Figure patent RU 2632422 .
Another interface solution from Yandex ™ was proposed in patent RU 2632144 , published in October of this year. The developers offer a layout of three GUI (graphical user interface). On the first GUI, there is an omnibox and a pair of buttons, a part of the interface element with icons at the top of the screen and a part of the element with recommended content at the bottom. A user swiping from top to bottom opens an interface element with icons entirely, moving to the second GUI, and a swipe from bottom to top opens the entire element with recommended content - the third GUI. The technical result is a reduction in the number of gestures required for navigation in a browser application.
In an even more recent patent RU 2635231 with a publication date of 09.11.2017, Apple ™ describes a user interface for controlling a mobile device application. We are talking about the choice of interface elements associated with a particular application, for example, affixing a rating, sending information about the application to another user or the ability to pay for the application.
User interface for managing Apple ™ mobile device applications. Figure patent RU 2635231 .
Patenting advice: The interface in terms of patenting is most often the way, i.e. It describes which buttons and icons the user sees, how they are located, what the user does with them and what is the result. Feel free to do a lot of illustrations - the expert of Rospatent will be more understandable, which means a higher chance to get a patent.
Design is exactly how an application looks, unlike the interface, and it is easiest to patent it, although it causes no less patent disputes than it does inventions. The patent in this case will be on an industrial design.
A striking example is Apple's famous gallery design. Here is what the developer writes in the patent description: the image that appears is sequentially transferred between the images shown in the figures.
An animated graphical user interface patented by Apple ™.
Patent US D609715 .
Below are illustrations to another patent on the well-known Apple ™ interface design.
US patent US D597101 protects an animated image for a portion of the display screen.
As a design element of the interface is interesting patent from HTC Corporation ™. The patent is dedicated to a dynamic screensaver with a clock.
A display screen with a graphical user interface from the HTC Corporation ™ patent. Patent US D637605 .
Despite the fact that the above examples refer to the design of dynamic objects, as the most typical for mobile applications, there are patents for static images. One such example is the latest design from Uber Technologies, Inc ™ (published August 22, 2017).
The design of the screen computing device with a graphical user interface from Uber Technologies ™. US Patent D795268 .
Feel the difference between the interface and the design?
Patent advice: Here, unlike interface applications, do not try to put all possible illustrations into a patent application. Select only those that show the main chip. If color is not important, use black and white drawings. Show unimportant elements with a dotted line and - no fill and gradient!
But not everything is so simple. A mobile application is a whole bunch of technical solutions, and therefore potential inventions.
A novice inventor should remember that an invention is one improvement, be it a new type of active user interface element, a new way of processing and transmitting information to the server, or the concept of the application as a whole.
')
Let's take an example of such giants as Apple ™ and Yandex ™ to analyze several scenarios of searching for an invention in an IT solution.
Why did the developer need a patent: to prove that he is cooler than Google, to fool the investor or to hang with satisfaction in the toilet , is a topic for a separate article. In this article, the main thing is to show which side to look at your creation in order to find an invention there.
We will consider first Russian patents, since patent legislation in our country has its own characteristics and differs from similar in other countries. The examples are primarily used patents Apple ™ and Yandex ™, because they are described in detail from a technical point of view and well-formed - from a legal point of view, they should be equal.
I. There are at least three typical dead ends when an invention patent cannot be obtained.
1st situation: "I threw unnecessary"
Often, developers take as a basis some well-known application, remove some functionality from there, and run to file a patent application.
For example, the developer wants to create a hotel database, but he does not need a booking function. The purpose of the application is purely informational, i.e. what hotel is the user and information about him. Unfortunately, Booking ™, Google ™ and Tripadvisor ™ are able to do all this along with a bunch of other options.
Conclusion: the solution will not become patentable if any functionality is removed from a known product.
Advice to the developer: you need to come up with a new, your own functionality, which “is in causal connection with the technical result”, i.e. translated from patent to human bears some benefit. You will hear this phrase more than once from patent specialists and experts of the Patent Office.
2nd situation: “Give the same, only with pearl buttons”
Sometimes the developer, trying to alleviate the difficult fate of the user of social networks, or trying to eclipse the glory of Facebook ™, offers new options for presenting content to the user.
For example, a developer wants to visualize a ribbon, painting posts in various colors on topics or suggesting that a user paint a message in a mood-appropriate color: red — anger, green — new, violet — indifference, etc.
The solution seems cool, and the user should be comfortable, but the patent legislation in Russia does not allow patents as inventions to deal only with appearance, aimed at satisfying aesthetic needs and consisting only in the presentation of information ( Art. 1350 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation ).
Conclusion: Rospatent will refuse to patent the invention, if the chip is only in visual appeal, convenience or clarity of design.
Advice to the developer: you can think about the protection of the design, for example, apply for an industrial design.
3rd situation: “I am a brilliant programmer”
In half of the cases, in response to the question “What's new in your decision?”, You get the answer: “Source code!”. The developer believes that his invention is a super-optimized source code or code in which no one will ever figure it out.
Conclusion: Such solutions are a priori non-patentable, since belong to copyright and are classified as a literary work, and the right to them is not necessary to register - it appears automatically from the moment of publication of this work.
Advice to the developer: there is a chance that the algorithm will be patentable, i.e. a sequence of actions that the program executes, and not the source code, as a way of operating the software product.
Ii. Where to look for patentability?
To understand which aspects of mobile applications are hypothetically patentable, let us show a few examples.
1. Concept
The concept of a mobile application, implemented in user interactions, ways of presenting information, organizing social services or,
The concept of the collector of letters is described in the patent RU 2485706 by Yandex ™. When a user has several e-mail boxes, he is able to process all messages in one mailbox using the mailbox interface of the receiving box.
The same company offers a concept application tips to the driver how to drive a particular section of the road ( RU 2629875 ). The application analyzes how another vehicle drove this area, taking into account its characteristics, the geolocation of the road section, its condition, weather conditions and vehicle parameters of the driver himself. After that, the user can hear advice from his smartphone, for example, “Slow down speed”, “Change gear” or “Turn on the headlights”. The patent does not say, but the application, probably, could also release snide remarks related to the same advice or driving style of the driver.
Figure patent RU 2629875 .
Another example from Yandex ™ is a solution for determining the mode of operation of traffic lights ( RU 2580428 ), which is based on the logs of navigation devices and the characteristics of their movement in the traffic light zone, according to which their mode of operation is determined.
Now you can not imagine a mobile device without electronic assistants. Patent RU 2541221 from Apple ™ is one of the fundamental decisions for the functioning of an intelligent automated assistant. The helper receives a request from the user based on voice input and implements its textual interpretation. Based on the request, the application determines the task to be performed by the mobile device, and then presents the user with a task rephrasing, which includes the formulation of the task in natural language.
An example of the work of an electronic assistant from Apple ™. Figure patent RU 2541221
With this patent there are several more related to the same subject, for example, a personalized dictionary for digital assistant ( RU 2541219 ), prioritizing selection criteria by means of an intelligent automated assistant ( RU 2546606 ), deducing the user's intention based on previous interactions with voice assistant ( RU 2544787 ) .
Apple ™ still has a patent RU 2542937 on how to use contextual information to automate user interaction with an electronic device through voice input, interpreting ideas of the user's intentions, for use in virtual assistants.
Patent advice: Usually, systems or methods are patented as concepts and use a technical result - “expanding the arsenal of tools”, which is sometimes the official version for such useful effects as enhancing user convenience or raising awareness, which the Patent Office of Russia usually does not consider technical.
2. Data processing
If the concept is no longer new, but you want to make your contribution, you can play with a modification of the known solutions.
The Yandex patent ™ RU 2632424 describes a method for making the synthesized voice more “humane”, i.e. add speech attributes: emotions, gender and other features. Teach voice using deep neural network based on training text data and corresponding training acoustic data.
Image processing can also be attributed to data processing. In the patent RU 2632272 a method is proposed for creating panoramic images taking into account the correction of objects that have changed their location in the process of shooting. For example, the same bird flew and flew and found itself on different pieces of the panorama. The developers propose to cut this bird out of one piece, leaving it only on the other, for which they compare at least three photos taking into account the time of shooting and synthesize the image.
Another example of image processing is an image scanner application from RU 2587406 . According to the invention, the user on the display selects the area that he wants to recognize. The smart application analyzes whether there are any important parts of the text associated with the recognized piece outside the area allocated by the “stupid” user. If the application finds such a text, it also recognizes it, despite its non-entry into the selection area.
The lion's share of data processing patents relates to the processing and analysis of geodata, for example, the user's location for his own benefit — navigation — or for business benefit — geo-targeting.
Patent RU 2632189 proposes to send messages to the user based on its location, which satisfies the criterion of two areas and the duration of its location in these areas. For example, the user is now in a shopping center — the first area — and the second area is approaching a specific store. If the application believes that the user is in the second area for a long time, then classifies this area as a point of interest (POI) and sends the user a message (read - advertising), which corresponds to the first and second areas.
Patenting advice: The key object of patenting for this type of solution is the method, i.e. a sequence of actions that a software product performs by sending, processing and generating data using a server, a microcontroller, and other devices. In order for Rospatent not to recognize such a method as “economic activity”, it is necessary to describe the “iron” on the basis of which the method is built, i.e. what devices your application interacts with.
3. Security
A key element of any mobile application is user data security. Patentable solutions here can be methods of protecting transmitted or stored information used in the operation of the application, whether it is bank data or the recipe for the cake of your beloved grandmother.
For example, a Yandex ™ RU 2580432 patent is devoted to blocking a user's activity if the model of his behavior differs from the model in his account.
This also includes a method of protecting data when a mobile device interacts with a computer ( RU 2628924 ) or a method of blocking access to data on mobile devices using the API for users with disabilities ( RU 2618946 ) from Kaspersky Lab ™.
Patent advice: Here, the methods and systems can be the objects of patenting, and the technical result is often the increase in data security.
4. Interface
Here, the interface should be understood not how the application looks, but how it interacts with the user.
The most obvious example is unlocking a smartphone by swiping your finger upwards on the screen - the swipe patented by Apple ™ back in 2005 ( US 8046721 ).
A very fresh example of the interface (publication date 04/10/2017) is the vision of Yandex ™ of the keyboard of the future for gadgets. The company offers instead of the classic pop-up keyboard to use a character input area, for example, of three parts: on the right is the symbol selection tool, in the center is the information field, on the left is the confirmation button.
The patented keyboard interface from Yandex ™. Figure patent RU 2632422 .
Another interface solution from Yandex ™ was proposed in patent RU 2632144 , published in October of this year. The developers offer a layout of three GUI (graphical user interface). On the first GUI, there is an omnibox and a pair of buttons, a part of the interface element with icons at the top of the screen and a part of the element with recommended content at the bottom. A user swiping from top to bottom opens an interface element with icons entirely, moving to the second GUI, and a swipe from bottom to top opens the entire element with recommended content - the third GUI. The technical result is a reduction in the number of gestures required for navigation in a browser application.
In an even more recent patent RU 2635231 with a publication date of 09.11.2017, Apple ™ describes a user interface for controlling a mobile device application. We are talking about the choice of interface elements associated with a particular application, for example, affixing a rating, sending information about the application to another user or the ability to pay for the application.
User interface for managing Apple ™ mobile device applications. Figure patent RU 2635231 .
Patenting advice: The interface in terms of patenting is most often the way, i.e. It describes which buttons and icons the user sees, how they are located, what the user does with them and what is the result. Feel free to do a lot of illustrations - the expert of Rospatent will be more understandable, which means a higher chance to get a patent.
5. Design
Design is exactly how an application looks, unlike the interface, and it is easiest to patent it, although it causes no less patent disputes than it does inventions. The patent in this case will be on an industrial design.
A striking example is Apple's famous gallery design. Here is what the developer writes in the patent description: the image that appears is sequentially transferred between the images shown in the figures.
An animated graphical user interface patented by Apple ™.
Patent US D609715 .
Below are illustrations to another patent on the well-known Apple ™ interface design.
US patent US D597101 protects an animated image for a portion of the display screen.
As a design element of the interface is interesting patent from HTC Corporation ™. The patent is dedicated to a dynamic screensaver with a clock.
A display screen with a graphical user interface from the HTC Corporation ™ patent. Patent US D637605 .
Despite the fact that the above examples refer to the design of dynamic objects, as the most typical for mobile applications, there are patents for static images. One such example is the latest design from Uber Technologies, Inc ™ (published August 22, 2017).
The design of the screen computing device with a graphical user interface from Uber Technologies ™. US Patent D795268 .
Feel the difference between the interface and the design?
Patent advice: Here, unlike interface applications, do not try to put all possible illustrations into a patent application. Select only those that show the main chip. If color is not important, use black and white drawings. Show unimportant elements with a dotted line and - no fill and gradient!
Some "NOT" instead of the conclusion
- Do not publish development information (even on Habré and in Github) until you have checked patentability - it’s likely that this information will be contrasted with patenting as a defamatory novelty, even if the author is the same.
- Do not attempt to file and submit an application yourself - 99.9% of the refusal to grant a patent by Rospatent without the possibility of re-submission. Refer to practitioners who are aware of the patent law and speak three languages: IT, patent and human, at least with a dictionary (and this is not an advertisement for the services of patents and their agencies).
- Do not forget to legalize the relationship between all the participants of ingenious development: authors, customers, employers and potential investors. To eliminate the risk of litigation, think over everything: who will be the owner of the patent, who will receive what remuneration, and who will get the liver to the office.
- Do not disclose the details of the invention to investors, sponsors, and other sympathizers — they are fraught with stumbling upon a patent application of identical content from familiar or unfamiliar personalities.
- And finally, do not despair - copyright is always with you.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/348984/
All Articles