Submarine Patents—Periscope Up!
In the United States, patents remain secret until they are granted or 18 months after filing (unless you request nonpublication at the time of filing). In other words, once you file your application, no one other than select USPTO officials, such as examiners, know what you have invented. The process to get a patent can be a drawn-out affair, so it is possible for competitors to unknowingly develop and market a technology or mechanism, for example, for which others have already filed patents.
The term submarine patent applies to the situation in which a company or inventor surfaces with a patent to an invention that a competitor has been using for some time and asks for royalties. Furthermore, the inventor who has the submarine patent may never have proven the invention, as it is no longer required that inventors build proving models of their ideas.
The most celebrated of such cases involved Jerome H. Lemelson, America’s most prolific contemporary inventor, who held more than 550 patents, including some on the bar code scanner. According to Fortune (May 14, 2001), Lemelson’s theoretical patents earned him $1.5 billion in licensing fees.
Between 1992 and 1995, Lemelson licensed his bar-code scanning technology used in electronics and automobile manufacturing to more than 70 companies, including Sony, Apple Computer, and Daimler-Benz, but not before having to engage in huge legal battles.
Notable Quotables
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
—Albert Einstein
In the April 9, 1997, edition of The Wall Street Journal, staff reporter Bernard Wysocki Jr. explained it like this: “It was as if the 1954 and 1956 filings were roots of a vast tree. One branch ‘surfaced’ in 1963, another in 1969, and more in the late 1970s, the mid 1980s, and the early 1990s. All direct descendants of the mid 1950s filings, they have up-to-date claims covering more recent technology, such as that for bar-code scanning.”
One of Lemelson’s former attorneys, Arthur Lieberman, told Fortune, “In many cases he didn’t patent inventions. He invented patents. … He would look at the magazines and determine the direction of industry.” Lieberman said that Lemelson would use his knowledge, get to the Patent Office first, and thus lay the foundation for future claims, should there be breakthroughs by inventors in a particular field.
While Lemelson technically played by the rules to amass a $500 million fortune, recently the loopholes that allowed this were closed through the lobbying efforts of big industry. (By the way, Lemelson’s contingency attorney is reported to have earned more than $150 million in fees!)
Bright Ideas
Men have been shaving off their beards with sharp implements since ancient times. Cave paintings show shells, sharks’ teeth, and sharpened flint used as razors. But one American inventor changed the face of mankind by revolutionizing shaving habits. King Camp Gillette invented the first disposable blade in 1901. He created a thin, double-edged blade that was fastened to a special guarded holder and could be thrown away when it got dull. An entire generation was converted to the safety razor when the U.S. government issued Gillette razors to its troops during World War I.
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