Google Patents
Google is in the news for securing the grant of a US Design Patent that is intended to cover its search home page. The US Design Patent in question, US D599,372, issued on 1 September 2009 and is entitled Graphical User Interface for a Display Screen of a Communications Terminal.
The interest in what Google is doing in the US reflects the importance of Google as such a large player, and also relative simplicity of the design covered. The design is reproduced below, with the elements shown in dashed lines not included in the scope of protection. Ignoring the elements shown in dashed lines does not leave much behind.
US Design Patent protection is akin to the sort of protection we know in Europe as a Registered Design, and using Registered Designs to protect screen shots is also possible in Europe. The European Designs Regulation opened the doors for this type of protection to be obtained across the EU over 5 years ago. In fact, had Google filed a corresponding application to cover the search home page in Europe the registration would almost certainly have been granted soon after filing and at a much lower cost than the US Design Patent. European design registration offers a cost effective way of building on the copyright protection that covers screen shots as graphic works, and is particularly useful for internet businesses where the look of the website is a factor in whether customers return or look elsewhere.
Before US D599,372 issued, Google had already secured US Design Patent protection for other very simple screen layout designs. One example from March 2007 showing on Google's own patent information database here: Google Patents
It remains to be seen if Google will take steps to enforce the rights under its US Design Patents, or indeed whether there is any third party interest in challenging Google's US Design Patents.
Securing rights to protect its position is not the extent of Google's interest in patents. The top hit revealed using http://www.google.com to search for "patents" is Google's own dedicated patent search tool. Google Patents was launched in 2006 and is a search facility for published US patent documents. The speed of retrieval and convenient display options make Google Patents an attractive place to turn to for investigating the US patent landscape. However, some care is needed. Users of Google Patents would be well advised to look in detail at the privacy policy that applies.
Search terms are recorded on Google's servers as log information, and from there may be compiled into what Google refers to as "aggregated non-personal information" for sharing with third parties. The example given in Google's privacy policy of the type of information that may be shared is the number of users that searched for a particular term. If an inventor was to search for his invention using Google Patents, and entered search terms that describe the invention then there is an argument to say that this is a public disclosure of the invention. Public disclosure has disastrous consequences for an inventor's patent position, particularly outside the US. Google's UK site does not link directly to Google Patents, which might be an indication that Google is aware of the issue. However, there is nothing in the privacy policy specifically dealing with patent searches, and no warning of the potential problem on the Google Patents home page. Professional patent searching using subscription-only databases avoids these problems, and is something we would be happy to undertake in strictest confidence.
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