(157a) Patents: Offensive and Defensive Strategy for Chemical Engineers

During your chemical engineering career, you will mostly likely come up with a patent-eligible invention, and possibly hundreds of them.  This session will cover how to best protect your inventions and avoid infringing the patent rights of others in view of recent legislation, as well as Federal Circuit and Supreme Court decisions. 

The first half of the session will cover patents from an offensive perspective, including how to obtain and enforce your own patents.  We will discuss what constitutes patent-eligible subject matter and the requirements for obtaining a patent in the United States and other countries.  We will also discuss critical actions and precautions you should take to preserve and pursue all potential worldwide patent rights, including important deadlines, retaining important documentation of your inventions, confidentiality agreements, patentability searches, and provisional patent applications.   You will learn about the different types of patent applications and how your prosecution strategy can be tailored to your particular goals and budget.  The first half will conclude by covering ways to enforce your patent rights against competitors, including appropriate pre-litigation communication, and ways to generate revenue from your patents, for example by licensing your patented technology. 

The second half of the session will cover patents from a defensive perspective, including actions to take before using new technology to avoid infringing the patent rights of others, and ultimately avoid costly and time consuming litigation.  We will also discuss ways to oppose a competitor’s patent application while the application is still pending at the U.S. Patent Office, and ways to invalidate a competitor’s granted patent so that you are free to use the technology without liability.

The session will conclude with an open question and answer period.  Attendees are encouraged to contact the speaker after the session with any additional questions or comments.