“Inventor Confidential” by Warren Tuttle.
I recently received a new book to expand my understanding of the Intellectual Property landscape in the U.S.
After reading and initially finding the book light and informative, I stumbled on a few sentences, suddenly changing my opinion about the book and its author.
I think, one more in a long line of pretenders clinging to public support but representing the opposite interest. Trojan horses or wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Are you an Inventor? Beware
After reading this book, I see two points that need attention.
1) Inventor commission based on NET company profits?
2) Patent Assignment? WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Both create a disadvantage for the Inventor.
The .NET?
After subtracting all expenses, I would not be surprised if the inventor owes money to the licensee.
Talk of “ethical corporations” is not worth the paper it is written on.
There is a paper with numbers, and God only knows what is behind all listed “expenses.”
2) Forced Assignment?
It shows the true face represented by the author corporations.
In short, the Inventor is losing their invention in exchange, not for payment but for a promise.
“Assignment” creates more problems than it solves. For example, as described in this book, the author suggests that the inventor may take advantage of the assignee’s purchasing power by buying the product from the manufacturer.
Really? After the “Assignment,” the Inventor cannot do that without licensing the patent from the new owner. All the possible venues to bring in additional licensees are gone.
In essence, the author is telling us that it is normal when you rent a house to expect the owner to sign the title of the house to the renter.
The author tells us that inventors normally expect to give up their ownership in exchange for a promise, not a payment. Of course, it appears as “Lifetime Brands.” requests an “assignment.” every time from the vulnerable Inventor, but this is an expression of their arrogance and lack of consideration for The Inventor.
Even a quick internet search of the term “assignment.” results in the warnings that the Inventor may lose their rights to the invention forever.
Signing up for the “assignment” is not the most fantastic advice!!
Also surprising is that so well-informed authors lack knowledge about the PTAB.
The official number of invalidated patents revealed by PTAB (USPTO-Patent Trial and Appeal Board) during the 2019 USPTO Invention con is not 60% but 84%. Virtually any patent that proved valuable would be revoked, so Big Tech and Chinese corporations would not worry about competition in the U.S.
The talk about the author Warren Tuttle being outside counsel for a bunch of corporations, unfortunately, after reading this book, appears to be just a smokescreen since there cannot be the slightest doubt about genuine interest behind it. The text of the book shows that he is not outside the independent counsel, but the whole arrangement is to create an appearance… when he represents the corporation’s interest.
Wolf in sheep’s clothing is probably the best description.
The book is well written and light, but I cannot recommend it or the author when it comes to the essence. The fact that he is involved with the United Inventors Association, sponsored by USPTO and financed by Google, is undoubtedly helpful to his business, but when it comes to Real Inventor’s representation? There are quite a few quasi-pro-patent organizations in the U.S., for example the Electronic Frontier Foundation talking in derogatory terms about patents while at the same time fighting for your consumer rights, but this is a separate and quite extensive subject.
(PS The scale of the problem created by PTAB illustrates that one Chinese Corporation, Huawei used the PTAB more than 700 times to invalidate United States Patent Office-issued patents.)