Urgently Request USPTO Director Attention to US8502060 INDEPENDENT Claims 1 & 13!

 

** THIS PATENT IS BEING ASSERTED IN A LAWSUIT AS A SWORD AGAINST A SMALL VETERAN-OWNED COMPANY - WHO CREATED THE iDRUMTECH APP FOR SMARTPHONE - FORCING THEM INTO BANKRUPTCY (FACING UNFAVORABLE SETTLEMENT OR DEFAULT JUDGEMENT / INJUNCTION PENDING) AND AFFECTING THOUSANDS OF APP USERS WORLDWIDE RIGHT NOW **

A Facebook Page called 'iDrumTech User Refugee Camp' has been established at: https://www.facebook.com/iDrumtechUserRefugeeCamp by a UK iDrumTech App User due to fear of the official iDrumTech App page being shut down via Court Injunction and or Unfavorable Settlement. 

Petition Information:

This newly granted software / method patent has one or more overbroad claims of Pitch Detection.  The '060 patent claims will block innovation, incremental progress, and provide monopoly over an already long standing market and several industries.

 

Claims 1 & 13 of the '060 Patent are INDEPENDENT CLAIMS (stand on their own) not bound to any specific device, program, or embodiment. This is extremely dangerous and can affect many fields, software applications, courseware, other tuning devices, and medical imagery / monitoring.

Dangerous!!

 

The overbroad claims in the '060 patent affect at least the following:

• * Spectral Analysis Fields
• * All future Guitar Tuners, Musical Instrument Tuners
• * Speach Recognition
• * Visualizers (iTunes, Apps, anything displaying an output related to a pitch or a frequency).
• * Medical Imaging and Analysis Tools  (Heart monitoring, cancer research, life support systems).
• * Police and other radio frequencies and equipment associated
• * Audio Engineering and Software
• * Search for Extra Terrestrial Life
• * Scientific Readings for space and other common uses of bandpass filters.

 

The '060 attempts to patent basic human hearing functionality, and the Absolute Threshold of Hearing.  Likewise, the claimed methods are the equivalent of identifying a musical pitch while listening to music, or focusing your attention on one speaker in a group at a cocktail party or dinner table.

Another example of Claim 1 or 13: Listening to your mother talking while watching television (Psychoacoustics).

 

We find it impossible that this patent was granted in August 2013, originally filed Nov, 2011, Re-Filed Feb-2013, and has claims which were already patented, documented and effectively used for over 30 years prior to the filing.

 

We believe due to information found that the '060 patent in question does not properly cite Prior Art which includes patents (expired in the 1990's and being available for public domain use) and published documents that have long been part of the Public Domain, and used for teaching in educational courses.  More information and a lengthy list of Prior Art can be found at AskPatents.com which would make a quick reexamination force this patent to narrow or invalidate it's claims yielding it ineffective against monopoly.

 

Due to the Substantial New Question (SNQ) of Patentability and the evidence found that the patent was "rubber stamped" through an expedited process of the US Patent Trademark Office, we request an office member of the USPTO to notify the USPTO Director for Director Initiated Reexamination.

 

The '060 Patent was recently asserted against a small veteran-owned company which produced an app for drum tuning called iDrumTech. From public knowledge, the developer and company of the App could not afford litigation expenses in excess of $2 Million dollars to disclose prior art through a lengthy discovery and litigation battle.  As of this time, the company being sued is forced out of business severing all public information regarding the app, the concept, and it's connection with end users.  The Company in question does not feel it infringed upon what should be an invalid patent.

 

Shortly after lawsuit was filed against one drum tuning app, others fearfully withdrew from the app markets on both Android and iPhone platforms. This patent is blocking Innovation, free market, and competition, thus creating a monopoly.   Over 100,000 app users of two different apps have been inconvenienced, and told they may have infringed as well.  We must stop this!!

 

We request your help in petitioning the USPTO to correct what we believe is a mistake by granting a patent that is NOT Novel and Very Obvious to anyone in the field of spectral analysis, pitch detection, and musical instrument tuning.

 

Why should any member of the public have to pay in excess of $20,000 to $50,000 to have a patent reexamined when it was clearly an oversight or mistake of the USPTO? 

 

Please help us call this to the attention of the US Patent Trademark Office!
Useful Links:  (Be sure to mention: US8502060 Claim 1 & 13)

• * US Patent Trademark Office (USPTO)
• * USPTO Twitter  (Tweet about US8502060 @USPTO)
• * USPTO Facebook (Leave a Review!)
• * Director Initiated Reexamination 
• * US8502060 Patent Information on Google Patents
• * Prior Art Not All Listed in 060 Patent (Silver Bullet) (AskPatents.com)

 

How can this petition make a difference?

Per USPTO MPEP 2239: 

"If an Office employee becomes aware of an unusual fact situation in a patent which he or she considers to clearly warrant reexamination, a memorandum setting forth these facts (including a proposed rejection of all appropriate claims) along with the patent file (paper or electronic) and any prior art patents or printed publications should be forwarded to the Office of Patent Legal Administration (OPLA) through the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) or Technology Center (TC) supervisory chain of command. A disk having the memorandum in electronic format should be included with a paper copy of the memorandum."

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s2239.html

Your signature can help "an office employee (of the USPTO) become aware..."  of: Enough Evidence to raise awarness of unusual facts and question the patentability. 

 

Help us to SAVE INNOVATION and prevent monopoly on ideas, software, and common methods for achieving a task.  Method Patents (aka Software Patents) are extremely dangerous. This patent and several others that claim a method of achieving a task will infect your lives as end users if it is not stopped.  Businesses are being crushed, lawsuits are not winnable, this is a plague to the rights of innovators and end users. One signature at a time, such as yours can make a difference to a much greater problem.

 

** THIS PATENT IS BEING ASSERTED AS A SWORD AGAINST A SMALL VETERAN-OWNED COMPANY FORCING THEM INTO BANKRUPTCY (DEFAULT JUDGEMENT / INJUNCTION PENDING) AND AFFECTING THOUSANDS OF APP USERS WORLDWIDE RIGHT NOW **

Please SIGN & SHARE!!

Still Not Convinced?

Electronic Frontier Foundation EFF June 20th, 2013:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/06/bad-news-patent-trolls-ftc-look-under-hood-trollmobile

Electronic Frontier Foundation EFF December 5th, 2013:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/12/good-news-america-were-one-giant-step-closer-patent-reform

TheHill.org Blog December 5th, 2013:
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/192262-tech-groups-praise-house-patent-troll-vote

Electronic Frontier Foundation EFF December 6th, 2013:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/12/its-game-time-supreme-court-address-software-patents

The Wall Street Journal December 15th, 2013:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303293604579252662325112076

The Wall Street Journal December 25th, 2013: 
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304866904579267121991120040

TheHill.org Blog December 26th, 2013:
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/194025-google-accuses-coalition-of-patent-dragnet

Inside Counsel December 26th, 2013:
http://www.insidecounsel.com/2013/12/26/the-future-of-software-patents-part-1

Electronic Frontier Foundation EFF December 27th, 2013: https://www.eff.org//deeplinks/2013/12/2013-review-what-year-patent-reform

 

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