I need help with a Patent project for school!

[kozmo02]

our project is based around researching patents and since I am in the hobby I felt that protein skimmers would be a good route but it is proving to be more difficult than I had originally thought. So far Aqua C and ETSS are the only two I have found with patents. Aqua C helped me and filled out my questionnaire but the owner of ETSS told me he didn't have 20 minutes to spare and wouldn't help me so now I am a bit behind.

Unfortunately Euro-Reef doesn't have a patent on their skimmers, so if any of you know of anyone who has patented their skimmers it would help me out tremendously. This project is due tomorrow night before 11 PM and since my second source ETSS wouldn't help me it has really set me back.

Thanks!

[Sk8r]

I'll bet there's a patent in there somewhere---it may be divvied up into a patent on a nozzle, a patent on a box design, etc---that, or they're using off-the-rack parts which they can't patent because someone else has the patent under their own name. Look at the bottom plate on the device and at the embossed stuff. I'll bet it's on there somewhere. For another skimmer, however, try the Remora or Urchin.

[bkwudzjeep]

http://www.uspto.gov/index.html

I tried searching around here for ae technologies/ETSS/a few other things, and could not find anything....

I did search Tunze and found this....
http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=0&f=S&l=50&TERM1=tunze&FIELD1=&co1=AND&TERM2=&FIELD2=&d=PTXT

HTH, and good luck!

[kozmo02]

Thanks for the help, to clarify sources are better for me if they arent on various products within the same company, the professor wants alternative sources so we can compare the various companies and their products and see what was required to get that product to where it is today. Right now the focus is on protein skimmers so the patents would be best if they applied to that piece of equipment.

[bkwudzjeep]

Sorry about that....I just started searching the patents and posted what I found.....

Also was not sure if changing the topic was out of the question.....that's what I used to do.....;)

Again, good luck....sounds like an interesting project!

[gvibes]

I claim:

1. An aquarium protein skimmer, comprising: a reaction chamber, the reaction chamber being a container having top and bottom ends and a hollow interior; a foam column extending from the top end of said reaction chamber; a foam collection cup disposed on the top end of said reaction chamber and surrounding said foam column; means for circulating aquarium water through said reaction chamber; means for introducing air bubbles into said aquarium water in said reaction chamber; and a water re-circulating pump disposed within said reaction chamber, the water pump having an input and an output, the input being located above a point where the air bubbles are introduced into said reaction chamber.
Did this guy just patent a recirculating protein skimmer with an internal recirculation pump?

[smcdonn]

Here is a search that you can find many things about patents on protein skimmers. Hope this helps

http://patft1.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html

[gvibes]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7215694#post7215694 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kozmo02
Thanks for the help, to clarify sources are better for me if they arent on various products within the same company, the professor wants alternative sources so we can compare the various companies and their products and see what was required to get that product to where it is today. Right now the focus is on protein skimmers so the patents would be best if they applied to that piece of equipment.
That's a real ***** of a project. Also, if I were the patentee, I wouldn't be discussing my IP strategy with outsiders.

Edit: Come on. I can't say *****? What about "That's a real sonofa***** of a project"?

Edit2: Bummer.

[Chip Douglas]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7215938#post7215938 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gvibes
That's a real ***** of a project. Also, if I were the patentee, I wouldn't be discussing my IP strategy with outsiders.

Edit: Come on. I can't say *****? What about "That's a real sonofa***** of a project"?

Edit2: Bummer.

There's no reason not to discuss it, that's why they got a patent in the first place; it protects their product and they are free to market it, sell it, take it to shows, etc. They should not be scared to talk to people about it, there's no reason to be.

[kozmo02]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7215938#post7215938 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gvibes
That's a real ***** of a project. Also, if I were the patentee, I wouldn't be discussing my IP strategy with outsiders.

Edit: Come on. I can't say *****? What about "That's a real sonofa***** of a project"?

Edit2: Bummer.

I don't think you fully understand the project, there is no reason why any company would feel threatened by the questions, they are questions regarding the patent and how they went about bringing their product to the market, any entrepreneur I know would have no problem discussing how they made it this far with their product.

A patent just protects a product, he could talk to me all about it and tell me exactly how he makes it and it wouldn't effect his company at all because he is still protected at the end of the day.

[gvibes]

A patent just protects a product, he could talk to me all about it and tell me exactly how he makes it and it wouldn't effect his company at all because he is still protected at the end of the day.
I'm an IP attorney.

It's just that statements made about a patent can come back to bite you in the arse if the patent ever gets litigated. Trust me, I just spent a week in a room looking through ~100 boxes of documents looking for everything we've said about a certain patent.

I would not mind a client talking about their products, but I would recommend that they not talk about the patent. Their lawyers can talk about the patent.

For instance, what if the inventor says "Feature A of our widget is what makes our product unique, and the only reason we got a patent was because of that feature." What happens, if down the road, you sue someone, and they find a prior art widget with feature A? You are pretty much screwed.

The less you say about a patent, the better. "Widget 1 may be covered by x,xxx,xxx patent" is sufficient.

Sorry for the mini-treatise.

[Chip Douglas]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7217555#post7217555 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gvibes
I'm an IP attorney.

It's just that statements made about a patent can come back to bite you in the arse if the patent ever gets litigated. Trust me, I just spent a week in a room looking through ~100 boxes of documents looking for everything we've said about a certain patent.

I would not mind a client talking about their products, but I would recommend that they not talk about the patent. Their lawyers can talk about the patent.

For instance, what if the inventor says "Feature A of our widget is what makes our product unique, and the only reason we got a patent was because of that feature." What happens, if down the road, you sue someone, and they find a prior art widget with feature A? You are pretty much screwed.

The less you say about a patent, the better. "Widget 1 may be covered by x,xxx,xxx patent" is sufficient.

Sorry for the mini-treatise.

I think you'd have to see this questionnaire to understand how harmless it actually is, nothing about it would ever pose any sort of threat to any company that participates.

[kozmo02]

No detailed questions are really asked about the patent, and anyone who wants to reverse engineer a product can get to the bottom of it anyways and come up with something just as good if not better.

the questionnaire is based around an entrepreneurial stand point asking how they brought the patented product to market, their startup capital, etc. the only thing is we had to find a company with a patent, it couldn't just be some random company because that doesn't really have much of a challenge to it, the professor wanted us to go to the patent website, research patents, and find someone that has gone through the process to start a business and market a product.

[mille239]

http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=0&f=S&l=50&TERM1=protein+skimmer&FIELD1=&co1=AND&TERM2=&FIELD2=&d=PTXT

[HotHotHot]

Here is a link specifically for the ETSS (A E Technology) patents (they are #5):

http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=0&f=S&l=50&d=PTXT&Query=5%2C554%2C280+