The Law offices of David M. Miyoshi advises clients on the acquisition of patents in the sector known as "Internet Business Model Patents" and prepares patent applications directed to Internet related systems, as well as other computer technology-based inventions. The firm also prepares development agreements on behalf of clients desiring to develop Internet sites, as well as license agreements and other Internet related agreements involving intellectual property matters.

Below are sample patents involving Internet related issues. Please note that these are patents we did not file or prepare. They are shown only to illustrate the type of patents we handle.

The Two Cases That Opened the Door of Patentability For Methods of Doing Business On the Internet

Why care about intellectual property rights?

Why care about intellectual property rights? Isn't it something of interest to the birds... or maybe the attorneys? If you said 'Yes', think again!!

Consider the internet provider in Lithuania or the one person startup in Canada who download the contents of your site onto their servers, change the headers, and are deriving commercial benefits from that content. Consider the professor in California or the faculty staff member in the UK who believe that they have all the justifications for copying your publication -- without attribution or authorization -- since they are using it only for non-commercial teaching purposes. How about the research lab director at a large northeastern United States university who firmly believes that he is right in making physical copies of your online content on their server for their testing purposes?

All the incidents cited above occurred in reality over the last one year and in each of these incidents the copyright law has implications for the perpetrators, who commit intellectual property infringement with or without intention of deriving any commercial benefit. If you are involved in production or consumption activity in the information chain, you need to, perhaps, care about the intellectual property rights!!

The Taj Mahal and the Virtual Corporations

In an earlier age, any specific product was handcrafted and the creation of the product was based upon the innate knowledge or skills of human beings. However, since that era, people have tried to safeguard their investment in creations that are somehow unique or provide some unique value. An extreme case is that of Shah Jahan, the mogul emperor who built Taj Mahal. Folklore goes that the emperor instructed his soldiers to chop off the hands of the craftsmen so that they could never create another monument like Taj Mahal!!

In the era of knowledge age or information age, the fundamental unit of most products and services is information -- in one or another form. Ever thought about the virtual enterprises and virtual products? Most such notions of the knowledge society and the virtual products rest upon the cornerstone of 'information': in digital or non-digital form. In several cases such information is of proprietary nature, i.e., it has unique value deriving from usage, research, development, design, etc. Hence, the investment in that information product, knowledge product or the virtual product must be protected to encourage other similar initiatives. The initial investment is of critical importance given that replicates of such products could be created with relative ease and without incurring a large expense. How difficult or expensive is it to download a copy of the software program code once it is created? With increasing worldwide access to electronic distribution, the damage caused by piracy to content producers may completely destroy the value built in their intellectual property. [For more on this, see the Sep 26, 1997 Economist article Copyrights and Copywrongs.]

The same context is valid in the case of companies who have earned consumer recognition for their brand names and trade marks. A recognized brand name or trade mark represents the goodwill that has been built into the product or service. Consumers tend to associate the recognized brand name or trade mark with certain characteristics that are specific to that name or mark. Therefore, companies often spend millions of dollars annually for safeguarding the investment in the related intellectual property rights.

That is the crux of the intellectual property rights: to give credit where, and when, it is due. There are international enforcement bodies, such as the Software Publishers Association and Business Software Alliance, that have been active in exposing and penalizing the perpetrators of intellectual property theft. We also have associations such as the Open Software Foundation whose motto is to allow unrestricted access to software whenever possible. Who can deny the efforts underlying the initiatives of the creators of the freeware and shareware that are now benefiting the masses around the world? However, most such public domain software also includes copyright notices and trade marks. The rights of the producers and consumers of such information products are defined by these intellectual roperty notices.

It cannot be denied that with the emergence of the knowledge society and virtual products, the issue of safeguarding the investment in the information based products would assume increasing importance. We, as consumers or producers in the information chain, cannot afford to be ignorant about the intellectual property rights!! Why?... Because What You Don't Know Can Hurt You! The senior executives of companies also need to be aware about the potential liability even if they are not cognizant of copyright infringement.

Reason for Patents

Depending on its purpose, the strategy to obtain a patent differs.
There are many good reasons for Japanese enterprises to obtain a patent first in the United States, rather than in Japan. The best reason of all is that in the United States the period between the patent application and its approval is significantly shorter than in Japan. This U.S. patent is also effective in Japan because the Japan-American patent Treaty provides that a patent approved in the United States is also valid in Japan. Furthermore, the patent rights become effective as of the date the application was made, not the date it was approved. Another good reason to apply for a patent in the U.S. is that the application costs, including attorney's fees are generally lower than in Japan.

The following are the various purposes one applies for a patent in the U.S. It is important to carefully consider the purpose for which one is applying for a patent in order to make the most effective application possible.

(1) To protect against another company infringing your patent rights.
(2) To charge a user fee for licensing a patent.
(3) To receive government development aid and investment for the patent.
(4) To save (tax) money by establishing patent administrative companies in overseas (especially tax-haven) countries.
(5) To protect against damages (brought about by another company bringing a lawsuit for patent infringement) by routing the receipt of patent user fees through an overseas patent administration company.

Fees

-- Translation Fee ?

The costs for translations also depends on the contents and the delivery date, but usually it costs anywhere between $300 ~ $800 per one A4 size page.

-- Attorney Fees ?

三好国際法律事務所
Miyoshi International Law Offices

1055 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1890
Los Angeles, CA 90017 USA
デービッド三好弁護士
TEL: 1-213-250-2292
FAX: 1-310-378-0000

E-mail : yojiro@global-law.org