What is the reason why "common sense in studio shooting" was accepted as Amazon patent?

ByCeasol

Amazon Technologies, Inc., an affiliate of Amazon, filed a patent in 2011 as "invented" the photography technology and acquired a patent in March 2014. However, the patented shooting method has been widely used for a long time, and many people involved in camera shootingloose the temperOr, the news media Ars Technica "Amazon's patent is like getting a patent of peanut butter sandIn a situation that seems to be criticizing severely and scanty. Meanwhile, Ars Technica, which severely criticized Amazon's patents, reveals why such a standard shooting method could get a patent.

How Amazon got a patent on white-background photography | Ars Technica
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/how-amazon-got-a-patent-on-white-background-photography/


"How to photograph" that Amazon got a patent can be learned in detail in the following article.

It turned out that Amazon acquired patent as "inventing" the method of photography - GIGAZINE


Regarding patents acquired by Amazon, it has become a hot topic on the Internet, "patent examiners slept" or "the patent office is just a formal organization that passes all patent applications It is said that it is said that it is said.

However, organizations involved in intellectual property rights in the digital market based in Washington DC and the open standards of the InternetPublic knowledgeCharles Duan, a patent attorney who tackles patent-related issues at the company, said, "I have seen that many patent applications have been refused so far and I have also seen that the examiner has accredited a wonderful patent So, this is not an examiner, it seems to be thought that it is in the law to manage patent examination ".

So Duan asked why the patent filed by Amazon came to be certified from the "examination by the patent examiner's audit trail" published by the patent office and "contents of exchanges between the examiner and the patent attorney" , And it reproduces the flow until the patent is applied and it is certified. Although the story itself is a fictional story, the law and the factual background are accurate.

BySee-ming Lee

When a company applies for a patent, it creates a patent application text outlining the patent. The company entrusts the creation of this text to patent attorney-in-law, but there are times when we repeat meetings to hear the details of the patent from companies and inventors.

Amazon's engineer at the meeting's seat said, "We got this funny shooting method as a method to shoot the products of our site clearly, basically when shooting a product picture, The color is attached, the necessity to process the photo with the image editing software came out, this work is very troublesome, but if we take the shooting method we created the background of the product will be completely white " He told me a lot about the sketches and told patent patent attorney, "Can we patent this method?"


A patent attorney says, "It is also dependent on the response at hand, you hear that a similar method has already been patented?" Asked engineers, "Of course, others are alike There must have been such a shooting method, but as far as we know, it was necessary to make some modifications after shooting.In this way we invented a little correction is necessary as well There is not it. "

And, if there is a prior patent, it seems that I tried actually to apply for a patent because it is the job of the patent examiner to find it.

ByPaul Martinez

A patent attorney writing a patent application text looks at the patent claim while looking over the draft. A patent claim is a range in which a patent acts legally, and the claim includes "element" and "restriction". In the stage of the first draft the complaint contained elements such as "background", "light source", "subject" at the time of shooting. In order to claim that a patent has been infringed, it is necessary to prove that the element is included. When applying for a patent, it seems that the patent examiner will investigate the previous patent and investigate the elements of the claim, which is also an important part of the patent.

Amazon's acquired patent "Studio arrangementAmazon's engineer explained that the liver of No. 1 (placement in the studio) is "the object is standing, the background becomes pure white and there is no need for correction". Based on the draft, patent attorney will newly add the following complaint.

"In the arrangement of studio arrangement, the distance from the background to the table is 4.5 to 5.5 times the height of the table on which the subject is placed"


The patent examiner who looked over the patent application text submitted in this manner seemed to have thought that he had seen similar things in the past. After examining prior patents with some keywords and browsing old patentsPatentI remember. When I compare this old patent with Amazon 's newly filed application, I notice that the shapes are very similar. It seems that we have comprehensively compiled the complaints and elements of the two applications.

And, in Amazon patents, I notice that the "accurate distance ratio" is recorded between the background and the subject where the subject is placed. Normally, if you specify such detailed numbers in the patent application, the scope of claims will narrow, so I will not write it.

Left is an old patent, right is a technical image diagram of Amazon's patent.


The details of the numerical value "4.5 to 5.5" was not included in the application text, so the examiner seems to have no idea why this figure is convenient. However, the patent was certified. Although it is not an excellent patent of Amazon's "arrangement in the studio", it is clearly different from the patent which has been certified so far in that "a clear numerical value is described", and the patent It seems that it was a sufficient difference to give.

The reason for why this patent was certified is that most of AmericanFederal Circuit Court of AppealsIt is "clarity law stipulated by CAFC". CAFC is one of the appellate courts in the United States and is a court with jurisdiction over cases related to patents. In the case of humans Although it may set the distance between the background and the subject based on the experience so far, this CAFC requires that such detailed numerical values ​​etc. are clearly written on the sentence .

For these reasons, the distance ratio may not be an important factor for Amazon patents, but you can guess that it was a big factor for a patent to be certified.

However, Amazon's "placement within the studio" patent was said to have not been certified despite incorporating the claim of the distance ratio, and the patent attorney also said that the number of light sources and the number of shading plates placed in front of the light source It seems he decided to include it in the claim.

ByConnecticut State Library

Mr. Duan said, "Probably patent attorneys will deliberately add elements such as distance and number of light sources to make patents easier to pass and patent examiners are not legal grounds, "We will have approved patents according to the policy" We are coming.

Furthermore, "Although the examination by the patent examiner is not ridiculous as accounting as anything as manga drawn, but in a legal system that must be certified even for patents that the world does not want The problem is that the examiner is working. " And, as Amazon's patent was approved, it says that it is also possible to obtain common ideas and patents of well-known ideas.