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Every country in the world "endorses" the concept of "essential" patents. It's called a patent.

by nceqs3 4y ago

yarg 4y ago
No. A patent covers a way of doing things. An essential patent covers the way of doing things. Essential patents in general fail the obviousness test; they cover the solution that most experts in the field would reach in solving the given problem.
- nceqs3 4y ago
  > A patent covers a way of doing things. An essential patent covers the way of doing things. You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. An essential patent is declared essential to a standard (of which there are many). Take 3GPP, companies like Qualcomm, Apple, Ericsson, Huawei, etc. all spend hundreds of million of $ developing each release of the 3GPP cellular standard. During this development process often times patents are filed (based on the companies contributions). As part of joining 3GPP you have to agree to license this IP on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. The patents are almost never obvious, as you can see from the lengthy debate over each feature and all of the associated proposals at each 3GPP meeting.
- paulryanrogers 4y ago
  Aren't essential patents essential because they are a standard (or part of one) that makes them essential? Not that they must be obvious? For example, what good is the perfect communication codec if every operator must each pay top dollar?
  - yarg 4y ago
    I'm not saying that 'essential' means 'obvious' in any official sense, rather that they generally cover solutions that experts in the field would come to if attempting to solve the problem. I struggle to see how the patent office could ever uphold the requirement of inobviousness, how could they possibly have expert level domain knowledge across all domains? So the patents get granted, contextually obvious or not. I should stop typing while I'm still vaguely on topic, before I start ranting about patent thickets and wilful infringement.

Every country in the world "endorses" the concept of "essential" patents. It's called a patent.

by nceqs3 4y ago

Every country in the world "endorses" the concept of "essential" patents. It's called a patent.

yarg 4y ago

No. A patent covers a way of doing things. An essential patent covers the way of doing things. Essential patents in general fail the obviousness test; they cover the solution that most experts in the field would reach in solving the given problem.

nceqs3 4y ago
> A patent covers a way of doing things. An essential patent covers the way of doing things. You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. An essential patent is declared essential to a standard (of which there are many). Take 3GPP, companies like Qualcomm, Apple, Ericsson, Huawei, etc. all spend hundreds of million of $ developing each release of the 3GPP cellular standard. During this development process often times patents are filed (based on the companies contributions). As part of joining 3GPP you have to agree to license this IP on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. The patents are almost never obvious, as you can see from the lengthy debate over each feature and all of the associated proposals at each 3GPP meeting.
paulryanrogers 4y ago
Aren't essential patents essential because they are a standard (or part of one) that makes them essential? Not that they must be obvious? For example, what good is the perfect communication codec if every operator must each pay top dollar?
- yarg 4y ago
  I'm not saying that 'essential' means 'obvious' in any official sense, rather that they generally cover solutions that experts in the field would come to if attempting to solve the problem. I struggle to see how the patent office could ever uphold the requirement of inobviousness, how could they possibly have expert level domain knowledge across all domains? So the patents get granted, contextually obvious or not. I should stop typing while I'm still vaguely on topic, before I start ranting about patent thickets and wilful infringement.