Trine University Wk 5 Patent Searching Tools and Techniques Discussion

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Week 5 Discussion: Prior Art

For this discussion, we will befocusing on the relationship between contract law and intellectual propertylaw. Read through the assigned chapters for this week in a Manager’s Guide toIT Law. The reading provides an overview of the process of writing a contract.Sometimes when it comes to intellectual property ownership of a produced workmay be split between multiple entities in proportion to their contributiontowards the work. The “work” can be any type of patent or

In the scenario for this discussion, you willbe reviewing a sample intellectual property contract between auniversity employee and the university regarding ownership and rights ofan intellectual-property work. The contract lays out four differenttypes ofscenarios regarding how the work was created and you are asked to fillin theblanks for each scenario regarding who and how the work should be owned.Inparticular, read through the contract and focus on the yellowhighlighted portionin each section and answer how you would fill in the blank.

1.Independent Work

a.____ year(s) following the termination of Creator’semployment with the University.

2.Work Created with Minimal University Support

a.____ year(s) following the termination of Creator’semployment with the University.

b.During employment, ownership equity of the Work shall beshared between the University and the Creator with ___% possessed by theCreator and ___% possessed by the University

3.Work Created with Substantial UniversitySupport

a.In exchange for the substantialsupport provided by the University it is understood and agreed that the Universityand Creator shall share equally in the ownership of such Work for a period of ___ years.

4.Work Commissioned by the University: (pick one)

a.(___) 100% ownership and equity to the University for thelife of the copyright or patent protection provided by law, or:

b.(___) ____%ownership and equity to the University and ___% ownership and equity to theCreator for ___________ (period of time).

After filling in the blanks todescribe how you would divide up the work and for how long in each scenarioexplain why chose to divide it up in the way that you did. In your tworesponses to your peers, respond to your peer’s analysis and response, anddiscuss how they are both similar and different from yours. Follow up with yourown post regarding the same.

Discussion Rubric

Initial discussion board posts aredue by Wednesday at 11:59P EST.

Two further reply posts are due bySunday at 11:59 PM EST

Written Assignment:

Handbook Prior Art

The handbook written assignment this week asks you toexamine the issue of prior art. This is an important part of the patent processbecause any patent must be unique in order to receive intellectual propertyprotection. Thus, it is important to do a prior art patent search to make surethat the patent that is being requested is unique and not already covered bysomeone else’s previous patent.

Prior art searches are also important because they canprovide information to the inventor about how others may be approaching thesame problem in search of a solution. Therefore, not only conducting a searchbut knowing how to search is important. In this handbook assignment, you areplaying the role of a patent engineer manager providing guidance andinstruction to other patent engineers that you supervise about how to researchprior art for a perspective patent filing claim. Describe the step by stepprocess that you want them to follow to research prior art claims to ensurethat the patent they are seeking protection for is unique and is a patentableitem. Additionally, discuss other benefits that can arise from conducting aproper prior art patent search. Your response should be 1,000 to 1,500 words in length.