By making and selling a machine that can implement the method you
contribute to the infringement of others.
By that token, one can
infringe on the patented design of a space rocket by making and selling a hammer
or a screwdriver.
35 USC § 100 - Definitions:(b) The term
“process” means process, art or method, and includes a new use of a known
process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, or
material.
If the patented method uses a known machine, then
manufacture, selling, importing and using the known machine are not infringing
on the method patent.
Of course, if the manufacturer takes out a
three-page ad. in the US explaining how the functions of its machine can be used
to infringe on a patented method, that would be inducement. However, in this
case, there are no adverts or guides to using the method. The existing functions
of the known machine make the patented method self evident with no targeted
inducement necessary.
As Sorolin might have put it, the method is
obvious to one unskilled in the art of using a smartphone when presented with
the functions of the known machine.
In the case of the 'form-filling'
patent, there is no invented method. The method is the self-evident use of the
machine functions. In the case of other patents of two-fingered gestures and the
like, the gesture is a function of the known machine (it requires a multi-touch
screen and the associated software already installed in the machine) and the
controlled function is standard to all equivalent devices). Knowing which
multitouch gesture does what is not an invention, but is a design decision.
For a device with a multitouch screen, it is the equivalent of a menu
or toolbar option and Apple have already lost their court case against Microsoft
for trying to copyright or patent those.--- Regards
Ian Al
Software Patents: It's the disclosed functions in the patent, stupid! [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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