I worked starting 2000 January at a startup in the San Jose area and stayed with the company for 1.5 years approx (i.e., through the dot-com bust/mini-recovery/bust). While I was there we came up with some interesting ideas (I came up with and refined a large portion of these ideas) and filed for 10 patents in 2001. I did a large portion of the patent disclosure work.<p>Long-story short (I will post further about the situation in further comment below) ...<p><pre><code> * patents filed were never fully pursued by acquiring
company, and all lapsed in 2007 or before
* patent appications have huge value and adequately
describe a beautiful monetizable system -- and due
to lapsed patents, while one could not prevent others
from implementing the same, others cannot successfully
sue a new startup for developing these ideas since
there is fully documented prior art
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More details in a further comment ...
So, to describe situation further ...<p>The dot-com bust and post-9/11 biz environment were not friendly to most startups and not friendly to big hard-to-implement ideas, and the startup company was rescued in 2002 or 2003 by a sideline project (largely not using the IP in the patents) in which a large I.T./storage company saw value. The large company acquired the startup.<p>The 10 patent applications, in the mean time, were not maintained or perhaps not novel enough to all merit patents -- though I doubt the "not novel enough" part -- I've seen stupid patents awarded for much less innovation, and I haven't yet seen the system the patents deal with implemented or sold. So ... I think there's huge value in the ideas behind the patent applications. The patent applications all lapsed around 2007 or before, I believe because they were peripheral to large company's business and nobody realized what they had in hand.<p>The ideas and system behind the patents only grow more relevant each passing year.<p>So what I see right now:<p><pre><code> * an idea-kernel that would be the excellent
basis for a new startup
* good documented prior-art (in the form of the
lapsed patent applications) that probably are
decent enough to defend against patent trolls
* I'm at the point in my professional career
where I want to pursue these ideas
* >>> the fact that if I were any other person,
with no prior association with the former
startup or acquiring large company, coming
across these lapsed patents, I could implement
them unencumbered and have good protection
(though I could not prevent others from
implementing the same)
* >>> since I worked on the original IP ...
I might have some obligation to the "acquiring
large company", though they likely would care
only if I were to (a) be extremely successful;
or (b) use the lapsed patent applications as
defense in a patent lawsuit
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I should probably discuss with an I.P. lawyer ...<p>... but my inclination is to:<p><pre><code> * build a prototype
* talk to potential investors and potential customers
* engage a patent lawyer to discuss possible
licensing arrangements (or outright permission)
to work on the I.P. with "large acquiring co"
* hope for the best
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Any suggestions?