Re: Hey, Win! CCFL Inverter "self-learning" resonant frequency?


Winfield Hill wrote:
> bill.sloman@xxxxxxxx wrote...
> >
> > Have a look at Baxandall's Class-D oscillator
>
> The immediate issue isn't to find a workaround, it's to find
> a way to invalidate a patent whose owners assert infringement
> by products using their patented scheme.

The prior art - the Jim Williams application notes - describe a system
that self-oscillates at the resonant frequency of the transformer. The
step to a system that actively determines the resonant frequency and
drives the transformer at that frequency strikes me as obvious to those
skilled in the art.

> Sadly, despite even
> good evidence of obviousness, it's very hard to get a jury to
> overturn a patent that enjoys a good presumption of validity,
> having passed careful review by patent examiners --- Who are
> amateur jurors to overturn a patent professional? To succeed
> one has to find something serous, like real evidence of fraud
> (applicant intentionally didn't mention significant prior art),
> or gross incompetence (the examiner failed to find or respect
> significant prior art), that forces the jury to feel compelled
> to over-rule the examiner.

Judges are also perfectly capable of being stupid. EMI in England
invented modern television a few months before RCA in the U.S.A. which
lead to a monster court case, in which a U.S. judge let himself be
persuaded by RCA that quadrature moduation was different from sin/cos
modulation. One my friends in England was involved in the case when he
was very young, which has contributed to his very cynical approach to
patent law.

> In other words, one must find EXACT instances of prior art.
>
> Either that, or the expert witness and defense lawyer (and his
> entire team) need to have *extraordinary* skill with the jury,
> so the jury feels the patent owner is a skank, and are looking
> for good excuses to do the right thing as citizens, and overturn
> his patent. That doesn't happen very often.

Most patent cases don't come to court. The one time I was involved, my
employer spent more money on lawyers while deciding not to fight the
case than they spent on the development work tat had provoked the writ.
They'd originally had counsel's opinion that the patent involved wasn't
strong enough to justify a court case, but the counsel onvolved changed
his mind when he saw the inventor's writ.

---------------------
Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

.

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