What is a startup?<\/strong><\/p>\n A startup <\/a>is a young company that develops a unique idea into a product or service. Entrepreneurs often pour hours and hours into a new idea in hopes to grow it into something used by many consumers within their target market. Even companies with \u201cbig names\u201d now, such as Uber <\/a> and DoorDash<\/a>, began as startups!<\/p>\n Once a startup brings its idea to life, it will often seek out money from venture capital investors <\/a>to help fund its idea. Typically, venture capital (or VC) investors will take a chance on young companies in exchange for a percentage of equity <\/a>in the company. Hopefully, as the company succeeds, the VC receives a return on its investment.<\/p>\n But before investing in the company, a VC will do its due diligence to make sure it is safe to invest and that it is investing its money in the \u201cright\u201d company. In addition to checking a company\u2019s formation and equity documents and its financial position and performance, VCs will want to ensure that the company\u2019s invention(s) is or are protected. Ideally, the startup company has secured (or, at least is in the process of securing) a patent for key aspects of the inventive concept. These factors and more will make a startup the \u201cright\u201d company for investment.<\/p>\n In addition to increasing their chances of obtaining VC funding, startups acquire patents to provide for flexibility to further expand their businesses. For example, startups can license their patents to other businesses and\/or customers, which can result in increased profits and growth.<\/p>\n Patents and obviousness<\/strong><\/p>\n A patent <\/a>is a type of intellectual property protection granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). A patent lasts from the time of issuance, for 20 years from the date of filing the patent application (no patent rights exist while the application is pending). If an invention is granted a patent, the inventor has the right to \u201cexclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling\u201d an invention or \u201cimporting\u201d it into the U.S. If someone initiates one of these actions, also called infringement, the inventor can initiate legal action.<\/p>\n Startups can obtain a utility patent for their invention. A utility patent may cover \u201cany new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof.\u201d The invention must be nonobvious<\/a>, among other requirements.<\/p>\n For an invention to be nonobvious, it cannot be something that would be obvious for somebody else in the relevant field to invent. The policy behind this is that we should award patents to inventions that are more than just a slight improvement over things we already use \u2013 we don\u2019t want society to have to pay for inventions that only offer slight improvements.<\/p>\n Some interesting (non)obvious patents<\/strong><\/p>\n Today, many startups whose patents we use might seem obvious to us today. Below are a few examples of some interesting inventions patented by startups that many of us use daily:<\/p>\n Peloton<\/strong><\/p>\n Peloton <\/a>is an exercise equipment company that creates stationary bicycles, treadmills, and rowers. Peloton equips their products with touch screens that stream live and on-demand fitness classes on a subscription basis, which makes these products great for working out at home! Peloton\u2019s sales soared during the pandemic <\/a>as gyms closed down and many of us had to work out in our homes.<\/p>\n Notably, among other patents, Peloton obtained a utility patent <\/a>for an \u201cExercise system and method.\u201d Because so many people throughout the U.S. have Pelotons, being able to access classes from different locations might seem so obvious to us today! However, at the time of its patent application, only physical classes were available. While some exercise equipment at the time also incorporated display screens, these types of products did not really engage users. Peloton\u2019s invention combined these two important aspects in a nonobvious way.<\/p>\n Warby Parker<\/strong><\/p>\n Warby Parker <\/a>is a retailer of prescription glasses, sunglasses, and contact lenses. While Warby Parker operates in brick-and-mortar stores today, it began as solely an online retailer. Warby Parker is unique in that it allows customers to try on 5 glasses frames without leaving their home. Customers can select 5 frames from the website, which are then mailed to their home and they can try on the frames for a 5-day period, free of charge.<\/p>\n The company has programs where customers can upload a photo of themselves and try on frames virtually through Warby Parker\u2019s mobile app. As a Warby Parker customer for many years, I\u2019ve used this feature many times myself and by now, it seems like an obvious invention.<\/p>\n However, virtual try-ons were not obvious at the time of invention and Warby Parker was able to obtain a utility patent <\/a>for \u201cVirtual try-on systems for spectacles using reference frames.\u201d Utilizing a \u201cvirtual try-on interface,\u201d Warby Parker\u2019s unique invention uses a computer-based system to take pictures of a user\u2019s face, determine key sizing issues, and combine with virtual glasses so that a user can envision how they will look with the specific frames.<\/p>\n While it may seem obvious to us now that this was desirable, something obvious to try does not mean it is obvious to create at the time. Previously, augmented reality (AR) allowed users to overlay virtual images on to real world objects. However, Warby Parker combined its glasses with augmented reality to allow users to actually see how glasses could look on their face before purchase.<\/p>\n GoPro<\/strong><\/p>\n GoPro <\/a>is a technology company that manufactures action cameras. If you have ever traveled to vacation destinations or participated in any high action activities, you have likely seen people using GoPros before! From surfing to scuba diving to skydiving, even people who are not photographers use GoPros to create high quality photos that capture exciting memories.<\/p>\n While GoPro has a large patent portfolio, one of its most useful patents is for “ Systems and Methods for Stabilizing Videos.<\/a>\u201d The patent claims a system for stabilizing and soothing the look of videos based on the trajectory ahead.<\/p>\n Of course, stabilized video content is something we might think is obvious for high action videos. However, the process of doing so is something that the GoPro patent covers. Today amateur photographers can take quality videos during high action activities because of technology like this patent. Before GoPro\u2019s invention, many of us wouldn\u2019t even think that creating videos that were not jerky or shaky was a possibility!<\/p>\n While many startup inventions may seem obvious now, these inventions received patents because they were nonobvious at the time of invention. Can you think of any non(obvious) patents you use every day that you can\u2019t imagine life without?<\/p>\n Kristen Salas Mationg Startups and Their (Non)Obvious Patents Many products and services we use every day are inventions from startups that were innovative, new, and exciting at the time they were created. For example, many of us now use, and take for granted, Uber for transportation or Square to easily pay with credit cards at restaurants or stores. While these companies\u2019 platforms might be obvious to us now, … Continue reading Startups and Their (Non)Obvious Patents<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":4085,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-patents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ipbytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ipbytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ipbytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ipbytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ipbytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3370"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ipbytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4406,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ipbytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3370\/revisions\/4406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ipbytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ipbytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ipbytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ipbytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/ipbytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/KSM.png\")
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\nLoyola University Chicago School of Law, J.D. 2024 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"