FAQ

    About Defensive Publishing

  1. What is defensive publishing?
  2. When to use defensive publishing? Is it right for me?

  3. The Process

  4. Can I publish myself?
  5. What to look for from a defensive publishing vendor?

  6. About D-Publish

  7. How is D-Publish different from other defensive publishing methods?
  8. How does D-Publish work?
  9. Is the D-Publish free?
  10. Will D-Publish remain free in the future?
  11. How quickly can my publication be published?
  12. How can I withhold my identity?
  13. I don't want anyone access my defensive publication. Can it be done?
  14. How can I view a defensive publication?
  15. Who does own the intellectual property in the document submitted?
  16. How can I complain about a publication?


    Aspator Installation

  1. How to install Aspator?
  2. What is the system requirement for Aspator?

  3. Using Aspator

  4. How to run Aspator?
  5. Why can I view the drawings?
  6. Why are some of the esp@cnet web page not working?
  7. Why are some of the Google web page not working?

  8. Subscription Fee

  9. Is Aspator free?
  10. Is mPDF free?



What is defensive publishing? - Defensive publishing is to disclose your invention to the public domain, such that no one could apply a patent for your invention. It protects your freedom of operation.

When to use defensive publishing? - The rule of thumb is (1) if you do not want to file a patent for your invention for whatever reasons AND (2) you do not want to keep the invention as a trade secret for whatever reasons, then you should use defensive publishing.

Use our Defensive Publishing Scoring Card to help you decide whether defensive publishing is a good choice for your invention.

A well written paper on defensive publishing strategy by S. Adams and V. Henson Apollonio can be found here.

Can I publish myself? - Yes. As long as your publication is accessible by the public, you satisfy the prior-art requirement. However, your publication date can be easily challenged by your opponent if there is no third-party proof. For example, you posted your publication at your company website but no search engine crawled the publication. Then, how can you prove to the court the publishing date that of your publication?

What to look for from a defensive publishing vendor? -To ease the publication hassle, a few companies including D-Publish could do the leg work for you. There are a few things that you should look for in deciding the suitable defensive publication vendor. (1) Speed - you want to publish you work instantly without any delay. A publication delay of one day means your competitor has one more day to file a patent application. (2) Price - it is almost 4 decades after the birth of Internet. It should not cost more than US$50 to publish a document because publication is not restricted to print medium anymore. (3) Accessibility- if a patent examiner can locate your publication, the patent examiner can decide easily to reject your competitor's patent application if it is similar to your idea disclosed in your publication. If your competitor can access your publications, they may decide not to compete against you directly.

How is D-Publish different from other defensive publishing methods? - D-Publish is quick, free and open to everyone. (1) We publish your publication within 48 hours. (2) During our beta promotion, D-Publish is FREE! Once the promotion is done, we will charge no more than US$20 per publication. (3) There is not restriction to access your publication. Through our search engine and Google, patent examiner can locate your publication. You can use D-Publish to distribute your publication to your partner. You can also use D-Publish to confuse your competitor by not disclosing your identity.

Services provided IP.com and Kenneth Mason Publications Ltd are excellent. However we doubt if they can match our services in terms of speed, price, and accessibility.

How does D-Publish work? - Very simple. Simply go to http://www.d-publish.com/d-publish.php and then follow the instructions there. Your publication will be published within 48 hours. You must supply a valid email address. We will send an email to you to confirm the validity of your email address. If you do not want others to know your email address, please check "No" for email address disclosure. Once you have emailed us your publication, we will start processing the file. If there is an error in the file, we will notify you. If there is no error, we will send you an email with a document number for your publication. At the same time, your publication will be posted on our web page and can be accessed by the general public.

Is the D-Publish free? - Yes, D-Publish is free during the alpha trial period.

Will D-Publish remain free in the future? - We will strive to keep our cost down. We plan to subsidize students and professors that they will not need to pay for the publication fee. For commercial users, our current plan is to charge US$ 20.00 per publication. Bulk discount will beavailable.

How quickly can my publication be published? - Your publication will be published within 48 hours on our web page.

How can I withhold my identity? - Check "No" for the question "Do you want to be anonymous with your defensive publication".

I don't want anyone access my defensive publication. Can it be done? - No, you cannot forbid others to access your publication once you submitted your publication to D-Publish. The law is very clear that a defensive publication must be disclosed to the public.

How can I view a defensive publication? - Just visit our archive page.

Who does own the intellectual property in the document submitted? - All kinds of intellectual property remains with you, the publication submitter. However, you give D-Publish a worldwide, perpetual and royalty-free license to publish your publication in any kinds of media.

How can I complain about a publication? - If you find a publication that has violated the free freedom of speech or infringing your own intellectual property rights, please email us with (1) the concerned publication document number, (2) proof that you are the original intellectual property rights owner if you are concerned about intellectual property infringement, and (3) reasons of the complaints. We will try to reply you our decision within one week.




How to install Aspator?

1. Uninstall previous version of Aspator.
2. Restart Firefox.
3. Visit Mozilla web site to download Aspator.
4. Restart Firefox.
5. At Firefox, click on Tools -> Add-ons -> Aspator Options, enter your email address.

What is the system requirement for Aspator? - Firefox 1.5 - 3.

How to run Aspator? - Conduct your patent search as usual at USPTO patent search site. Aspator will click in when search results appear.

Why can I view the drawings? - USPTO drawings are in TIFF format. You need additional software plugin. For details, please visit USTPO Full-Text Database Images.

Why are some of the esp@cnet web page not working? - esp@cent may not have received or processed new information from USPTO.

Why are some of the Google web page not working? - Google may not have received or processed new information from USPTO.

Is Aspator free? - During the beta period, there is no charge for downloading and using Aspator. There may be a subscription fee after we have finalized Aspator.

Is mPDF free? - We plan to keep mPDF as free of charge. However, mPDF requires large amount of storage space that we may need to charge to cover our costs in the future.

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