...Another example of what I talk about below, and this one annoyed me a bit as well. Not as much as the other example, as this one would have taken more work.
we are interested in field Y. We have been blocked from moving in to it by some fundamental patents and about 12 patent applications. All held or submitted by one group. This group has set some very high terms to license and the market just isn't worth it. SO - I keep my eyes open for other stuff and a way around. It would be worth doing if there is a hole around the edges or another approach to the same problem...
I get an email from a technology transfer office promising to solve the problem. I set up a CDA, round up the group of us that cares about this problem (Marketing Director, product manager, and 2 R+D people) as we are all very interested in this. They have kept their cards so close to their chest that we know, essentially, nothing. They say "we are worried about being scooped".
They give the talk and we ask about a billion questions. We are asking about stuff that they haven't thought about yet. They ask why we are worried about that. We point to the issued patents and the published applications. These are all news flashes to them, even though they pop out at the top of the list with a simple keyword search of the USPTO site.
We are bummed, as we had hoped with their secrecy that this meant that they had read the issued stuff and knew a way around it. NOPE, thanks for playing. They were just playing secret agent man and wasting our time.
We passed over the patent numbers, the application numbers, and a request to call back if they thought their stuff would get around that.
2 months later....still haven't heard from them.
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