Software Patents: Protecting Your Digital Innovations

​​Patently Strategic - Patent Strategy for Startups

Send us a Text Message.

We're officially kicking off our second season and in this month's episode, our experts tackle software patents.
As Silicon Valley engineer and investor Marc Andreessen famously said, “Software is eating the world”. It is central to so much of today’s innovation and the growth potential is off the charts. Five companies, all with software at their core, are worth a quarter of the S&P’s entire market cap. The AI powered market will grow to $180 billion by 2025. By the end of this year, the Global Edge Computing market will reach $6.72 billion and the global AR and VR market will exceed $209 billion. By 2030, there will be 50 billion IoT devices in use worldwide. That’s 6 devices each for every man, woman and child on this planet – and all of them are powered by software.
The stakes are high, the value is soaring, and the importance of quality software patenting has never been more strategically vital. In this month’s episode, Dr. Ashley Sloat, President and Director of Patent Strategy here at Aurora leads a discussion along with our all star patent panel, digging into:

• The social and legal issues surrounding software patents
• Strategies for how to protect software innovations
• A great overview of IP implementation concerns and strategies as they pertain to outsourcing, code ownership, agile methodologies, and open source use
• An inside look at how Google manages its IP

The group also concludes with an insightful brainstorming session around two problems that plague this space. The first is around a new patent type that would help overcome many of the current prosecution and court problems faced by software patents. The second, pulling from adjacent IP law, is a mechanism for small inventors to receive compensation for using their patents, similar to how music copyright royalties are handled.
Ashley is joined today by our always exceptional group of IP experts including:

• David Cohen, Principal at Cohen Sciences
• Shelley Couturier, Patent Strategist and Search Specialist at Aurora
• Amy Fiene, Patent attorney at Vancott and adjunct professor at BYU
• Kristen Hansen, Patent Strategist at Aurora
• David Jackrel, President of Jackrel Consulting
• Daniel Wright, Partnership Manager and Patent Strategist at Aurora

** Resources **
* Show Notes: https://www.aurorapatents.com/blog/new-podcast-software-patents

** Follow Aurora Consulting **
* Home: https://www.aurorapatents.com/
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuroraPatents
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aurora-cg/
* Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aurorapatents/
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aurorapatents/

And as always, thanks for listening!
---
Note

Chapters

1. Intro (00:00:00)

2. Topics overview (00:03:02)

3. Social and legal issues with software patents (00:03:44)

4. Federal Circuit software decisions (00:05:22)

5. Root of the problem: Abstract ideas exception (00:05:48)

6. Software protection strategies (00:06:11)

7. Software patents vs code copyrights (00:07:00)

8. Agile methodology implications (00:08:23)

9. Agile software patenting workflows (00:11:14)

10. Agile filing strategies (00:13:26)

11. The importance of agreements (00:18:23)

12. Open source software considerations (00:20:03)

13. Open source patent protection (00:20:55)

14. Outsourcing and code ownership (00:22:24)

15. Inside look at Google IP management (00:26:49)

16. Google v Oracle discussion (00:28:30)

17. Patenting AI and ML (00:32:23)

18. Brainstorming solutions: Software Patent type (00:34:18)

19. Brainstorming solutions: Statutory royalty rate (00:35:46)

20. Outro (00:49:25)