Notable submarine patent owners Ī notable case of a single submarine patent is the George B. In a 2006 report the National Academy of Sciences has recommended that "in all cases, applications should be published during patent examinations". The enforceable life of the patent can no longer be shifted into the period when a technology has become more widely adopted, and the patent applicant must give up the chance of foreign patent protection if he is to maintain patent secrecy beyond the 18-month period. As a result, there is little benefit in postponing the grant of the patent. patent law that introduced publication at 18 months also changed the duration of the patent to 20 years from the filing date of the earliest patent application in any chain of continuation patent applications. For continuation applications which claim priority to a previously filed application, the publication is six months after the new filing date. The applicant can change their mind within the first year, but the application is then published. at the time they file the patent, and keep the application secret. However, the applicant can explicitly certify that they do not intend to file a corresponding patent outside the U.S.
patent applications are published within 18 months of the filing date ( 35 U.S.C. Prior to changes in US patent law in 19, the content of patent applications was kept secret during the patent approval phase. ĭuring the extended prosecution period the claims of the patent could be modified to more closely match whatever technology or products had become the industry standard. Some submarine patents emerged as much as 40 years after the date of filing of the corresponding application. patent could benefit by delaying the issuance, and thus expiration date, of a patent through the simple, but relatively costly, expedient of filing a succession of continuation applications. patent was 17 years from the date it was granted, submarine patents could issue decades after the initial filing date. Submarine patents are also weaker in jurisdictions such as US Federal Courts, in which they may be considered to be a procedural laches: a delay in enforcing one's rights that causes those rights to be lost. Some submarine patents may also result from pre-1995 filings that have yet to be granted and will remain unpublished until issuance. This has significantly reduced the previous potential for submarine patent practices. Committee on the Judiciary, 2008 Īfter the United States signed the TRIPS Agreement of the WTO in 1995, the standard patent term of 20 years under United States patent law has been measured from the original filing or priority date, rather than (as was previously the case) the date of issuance. Some patentees took advantage of this practice to the extreme (with ‘‘submarine’’ patents), and intentionally delayed their patents issuance, and thus publication, of the patent for several years to allow potentially infringing industries to develop and expand, having no way to learn of the pending application."
Causes "Prior to requiring the publication of applications, the public would not learn of a patent until after it issued, which is often several years after the application was filed.
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