Patent Listing

[Syed Zaeem Hosain (Syed.Hosain@aeris.net)]

Hi, Alison.

In my position, I deal with patents quite a bit - have a few that I am on the inventor list. :) Which doesn't mean that I am an expert, but I interact with our patent attorneys a lot and I set some internal policy.

The main point I would make is that the fact that a third-party has licensed a patent to your company to use is _not_ really necessary to identify. It is a _business_ and contractual relationship between your company and the licensee.

Therefore, in your documentation, it may just be _sufficient_ to just add the patent numbers in the same way you identified the Ultrasonix patents in the sample wording (first sentence) in your e-mail.

But, most importantly, your question is best answered by your own patent attorneys (whether in-house or a retained firm), or your official Legal Counsel. They may have specific policy requirements that will let you know what to do.

Regards,

Z

From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Alison Craig
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2012 3:13 PM
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: OT: Patent Listing

This is off topic, but with all the tech writing knowledge out there, I figured this was a good place to start. Off-list replies would be wonderful.


I have been given a new patent to list in my documentation - but it's a patent we have legal permission to use. It does not belong to us.

Per the attached, all of our patents are listed on title pages and in a Chapter 1 section called (unsurprisingly) Trademarks and Patents (in tiny documents without cover and title pages, the patents are included in the first page footer).

My first inclination is to list the 3rd party patent only in manuals with the Chapter 1 Trademarks and Patents section - something like "The following third party patents are used in SonixGPS(tm) software: xxxxxxx." (Note that SonixGPS(tm) will be added to the Ultrasonix trademark list before the next manual release.)

Does anyone have any patent "credit" experience that could shed some light on how to handle this? As I haven't actually been given the name of the company from whom we "licensed" use of this patent, I can't include it. Am I supposed to?

If it matters, we are a Canadian company, but we sell all over the world.

Alison


Alison Craig
Technical Documentation Lead
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