Jason Preston
Writing

Nobody thought it could be done!

Jason Preston · 2 min read ·

In the admittedly wacky “SoYouWanna patent something” article, an entire subset is dedicated to the idea that your invention must be non-obvious:

Non-obviousness

Your invention must not have been obvious to an expert in the field. There’s really not a whole lot to go on here; this requirement is satisfied if the patent examiner decides that it is. This subjectivity makes it difficult to guide you, but here are a few questions you should ask yourself:

  1. Though your idea is new, would the invention be obvious to someone skilled in that field?

  2. Does this invention answer some long-felt need?

  3. Is the item commercially successful? (This can be determined after the inventor has filed a provisional patent application or has patent pending status.)

  4. Do other people who are skilled in the same area express surprise or admiration for the invention?

  5. Do a lot of people want to purchase licenses to manufacture the invention?

As I understand it, this kind of clause is meant to stop people from patenting (and thus making money from) relatively standard ideas. I think most people would agree, looking at the whole Blackberry lawsuits, that the idea of a “wireless e-mail service” is fairly obvious. The fact that RIM had to shell out millions of dollars because someone else “patented” a fairly obvious concept (and then sat back while RIM established and proved the market - a pretty risky and expensive operation) seems like a flaw in the system.

Macsimum News reports that Apple is filing to patent the process of buying music over a wi-fi network:

The patent relates to the purchasing of digital media items and, more specifically, to the use of a portable wireless device to identify and/or purchase digital media items. In fact, ringtones are discussed, so we’re talking telephony.

To me, and please don’t think I’m upset because it’s Apple, this sounds like a fairly obvious idea. Services already exist to purchase ringtones from cell phones. Wireless networks are already employed in linking speakers throughout people’s homes. Why is buying music that different?

I should go patent the idea that you can use RSS feeds to deliver content.