A submarine patent is a patent whose issuance and publication are intentionally delayed by the applicant for an artificially long pendency, which can be several years, or a decade.[1][2][3] Analogous to a submarine, submarine patents could remain "under water" for long periods until they "emerged", surprising the relevant market and potential infringers. Persons or companies making use of submarine patents are sometimes referred to as patent pirates.[4][5]
Typically, the submarine patent strategy requires a patent system where patent applications are not automatically published, and the patent term is measured from the grant date rather than the priority or filing date. In the United States, patent applications filed before November 2000 were not published and remained secret until they were granted.
The phrase is occasionally used more generally for any patent used in patent ambush.[6][7][8][9]
Submarine patents were criticized because they allowed inventors to delay the publication and issuance of their patents, creating uncertainty in the market and enabling them to enforce unexpected claims against competitors long after the technology had been widely adopted.
- ^ U.S. Committee on the Judiciary, Calendar No. 563, 110th Congress Report, 2d Session, U.S Senate, 110–259, The Patent Reform Act of 2007, January 24, 2008, footnote 112.
- ^ Gabriel P. Katona, The Myth of Submarine Patents, Pandab online newsletter (August 10, 1998, consulted on March 28, 2010) Archived (Date missing) at archive.today
- ^ Gene Quinn, Submarine Patents Alive and Well: Tivo Patents DVR Scheduling, IPWatchdog (February 19, 2010, consulted on March 28, 2010).
- ^ United States House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property, Hon. Howard Coble, North Carolina, Chairman, Hearing on the "21st Century Patent System Improvement Act", H.R. 400, Summary of Testimony of Harold C. Wegner, Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School, retrieved on June 10, 2006
- ^ Janine Robben, Son of Invention, Willamette Week Online, August 25, 2004
- ^ Josh Rosenblum, Paying for Patents, Legal Affairs, May/June 2005. Consulted on March 28, 2010.
- ^ [1] Archived February 28, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Ozer, Jan (2010-03-04). "Ogg, MPEG LA, and Submarine Patents". Streaming Media Magazine. Retrieved 2011-07-26.
- ^ Paul, Ryan (2009-07-05). "Decoding the HTML 5 video codec debate". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2011-07-26.