Application patenting; rights to an application

Bruce B...

Yes. Nearly all inventions are improvements or modifications of things done before. The question for patentability is whether or not the improvement or modification is obvious to one of ordinary skill in the relevant technical field knowing what is in the original patent. If not obvious, the modification or improvement is probably separately patentable (there are other requirements). However, you need to understand the difference between dominant and subservient patents and that patents do not give permission but rather give the right to exclude. So, the original patent owner may have the right to stop you from making using or selling your "application of that technology" even if you have modified or improved it. That would be called a "dominant patent." That is a question of checking the claims of the original patent and comparing them to your "application of that technology", and is something you should have an experienced patent attorney evaluate, as that is what we patent attorneys are trained to do. But, you may be able to patent your modification and exclude anyone, including the original patentee, from making using or selling the original technology modified per your invention. That is called a "subservient patent", since it can't be used without permission of the owner of the dominant patent. That means no one can use the technology of the subservient patent without a deal of some sort between the two owners. If all of this seems confusing, and you want to pursue your "application of that technology", you need to see a patent attorney and get advice. It will be money well spent, as not doing it means you are likely to run into legal problems of either infringement or failing to protect your own invention properly. If I can help in that regard let me know.