A PICList member who wishes to remain anonymous sent me the following 
offlist with permission to post it if I wish. I'm grateful for the 
advice and consider myself more educated on the subject than I was.

As requested I've removed identifying information. I appreciate his 
desire to remain anonymous. It would be interesting to have his 
comments on some other patent related claims but I guess that would be 
mixing his day job with his hobby, and unpaid to boot :-).

A significant mistake on my part was citing this as a patent. It is in 
fact a patent application and has yet to be examined for merit.

I said:

> Followed a link from a Luxeon LED application page and ended up at
> this patent.
...


http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220050018435%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20050018435&RS=DN/20050018435

...

He said

______________________________


> Russell,
>
> Please allow me to increase your understanding, as you have done so 
> many
> times for me in your postings to the PICList over the last few years 
> that I
> have monitored it (the term "lurk" often suggests an evil intent, 
> which I do
> not have so I prefer not to use it, but you may use it if you wish).
>
> I am a patent agent (not a lawyer) registered in Canada and the 
> United
> States, with many years of experience with patents in these and 
> other
> countries.  I have no connection with this patent application or 
> these
> inventors.
>
> First, let it be clear that this is not a patent.  It is a published 
> US
> patent application.  It has not been examined by the US Patent 
> Office.  You
> can tell this from the identification "United States Patent 
> Application",
> the year-number form of the number "20050018435", and the so-called 
> Kind
> Code "A1" all of which indicate a patent application and not a 
> granted
> patent.
>
> Anyone can file as a patent application, and have it published in 
> this
> manner, almost anything that can be made to look like an invention. 
> The
> contents of such published patent applications are not a very solid 
> basis
> for comments about the nature of granted patents, patent offices, 
> their
> procedures, etc.
>
> I am not going to waste my time assessing merits or demerits of the 
> claims
> of this patent application - the US Patent Office Examiner who 
> eventually
> examines this application gets paid to do that.  If and when a 
> patent is
> granted on this patent application, I have no doubt that the claims 
> will be
> substantially different from their present published form.
>
> But you quote claim 17 as a particular example.  This is a 
> "dependent"
> claim, in that it recites "A utility light according to claim 14 
> wherein
> ...".  The scope of claim 17 is limited to everything recited in 
> claim 14,
> plus everything recited in claim 17.  Claim 14 is an independent 
> claim (it
> does not refer to any other claim) and can be assessed individually. 
> Claim
> 17 has a narrower scope because of the additional features that it 
> recites,
> and it only has meaning together with claim 14 from which it 
> depends.
> Similarly, every dependent claim only adds limitations to the 
> claim(s) to
> which it refers, and can only be assessed together with those 
> claims.
>
> Why would anyone want to file such a patent application?  There are 
> many
> reasons, but I'll mention only three.  In each of these cases, the 
> inventors
> may have no thoughts of actually getting a granted patent.
>
> First, the inventors may not want a patent themselves, they may just 
> want to
> market a proposed product without interference from others.  By 
> describing
> their proposed product in a patent application, they get it 
> published, so
> that subsequent competitors can not later file nuisance patent 
> applications
> and attempt to disrupt their business.  This is a relatively cheap,
> effective, and reliable way of getting a description of a product 
> published.
>
> Second, the inventors may want to assess what else has been proposed 
> in this
> area.  By filing a patent application they get a search done.  There 
> are
> other, better ways of searching, but this may be useful and 
> convenient.
>
> Third, the inventors may be looking for financial assistance for 
> marketing
> their proposed product.  The filing of a patent application is often
> perceived by investors as being an essential step before they will 
> consider
> any investment.
>
> "Read it and weep.  Or laugh."  Or learn.
> "I spit on this patent and all such."  You missed, because it is not 
> a
> patent.
> "I laugh (sadly) at the patenters."  Don't laugh or be sad, but 
> learn.
>
> As an aside, I do feel that the patent system is much abused and has 
> many
> faults.  But it needs to be criticised for the right reasons and 
> with a full
> understanding.
>
> If you wish to pass on any or all of this information to the 
> PICList, please
> do so but retain my anonymity.  Thank you.

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