Can I Patent My App or Software Idea ?

This is a question that we have been asked a lot over the nearly 17 years that we have been creating software applications (apps, functional websites etc) for clients all over the place.

Intellectual Property, or "IP", can be a bit confusing and it may be a good idea for you to talk to a solicitor for more specific advice once you get down the track a bit further with your idea, but we're happy for you to benefit from our experience with patents and copyright law at any time so here's a little of what we know.

The answer is that, yes, sometimes you can actually seek a patent for your app idea - but not generally for the app software itself.

You see, apps are software which means that the lines of code that are written by software developers such as ourselves, are controlled by copyright rather than patents. Generally, if you hire us to do a job (create an application) we will assign the copyright to you so that you can freely alter it, or have others alter it in the future without worrying that we will try to claim ownership over that code.

If you have created a whole new way of doing things - or even if you have just come up with a unique way of doing some part of an existing process - then you may be able to apply for a patent for that process itself.

Patents, according to the definition that IP Australia provides are "legally enforceable right for a device, substance, method or process" and for your application to be successful, "your invention must be new, useful and inventive or innovative".

The key thing with patents - aside from making sure that you actually have something unique that someone else hasn't come up with before - is that they let you establish a "Priority Date". This is the date at which you have been formally acknowledged as having come up with an idea and is usually the date that your application was approved by IP Australia.

In Australia, there are 2 types of Patents that can be relevant to your software idea:

The Standard Patent ("Invention")

This is the traditional type of patent wherein a full "Examination" is performed by IP Australia to ascertain if your idea has been invented by someone else before yourself. This process is the more involved (and more expensive) of the two types of patents but gives you better protection and lasts up to 20 years.

If you are granted a patent, you own the exclusive commercial rights to your invention.

For a cheaper alternative to get started, you can apply for a "Provisional Application" which gives you a sort of hold for 12 months while you consider whether you want to go through the process of a full patent application process. If before that 12-month period expires you decide to apply for a full patent (and assuming that patent is granted) then your Priority Date is established as the date of your Provisional Application rather than at the time of the full application.

You can apply for standard patents internationally either by filing in each country, or by filing through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) which gives you access to 148 countries (including Australia, of course).

The Innovation Patent ("Innovation")

This is a newer style of patent application that was introduced a few years ago by IP Australia and can be ideal for software and other "fast" technology-based ideas.

The idea here is that it's not so much about "invention" but rather it's about "innovation".

So, if you have come up with a new way of performing an existing process - but have made it better in some innovative way - then you can apply for an Innovation Patent.

Innovation Patents aren't searched ("Examined") by IP Australia so the cost is far less ($180.00 at the time of writing) and they only last for 8 years.

Examination by IP Australia is optional and can be requested by yourself or someone else who wants to challenge your patent in the future. If, at that point, your patent passes examination and is certified then you have an enforceable patent.

Typically, the process takes about a month for the patent to be granted and it usually takes about 6 months for an examination to be completed (if requested).

The documentation needed for an Innovation Patent is relatively simple, providing you have the right knowledge and forms (IP Australia are sticklers for using the correct formatting and margins etc in their applications).

We have helped a number of our clients to prepare the documentation needed for both types of patent applications and have been granted an Innovation Patent on our own concept called "AssessPal".

In the case of our AssessPal concept. our claims are that we are applying 3-D technology in a particular and unique to an existing process of assessing motor vehicles for damage. There are 3 separate claims (Innovation Patents can have up to 5 claims per patent). Check out our patent here.

An example of an accompanying illustration for our own "AssessPal" Innovation Patent application
(Australian Innovation Patent #2016101591, granted on 8/9/16)

Give us a shout and grab a coffee if you'd like to discuss whether we can help create your new idea.

Apple Pay with ANZ (including VISA) in Australia today

This is an update from our previous post back in November 2015 where we announced that Apple Pay had hit Australia in a limited way. At the time, the service was limited to American Express cards issued by Amex themselves only.

Well, that all changed today after ANZ and Apple finally reached an agreement over fees that Apple charge to provide the gateway between their devices and the merchant/clearance facilities that the banks provide.

The "interchange fees" that the card-issuing bank can charge the acquiring bank (the bank handling merchant services for a business) are capped at 0.5% in Australia, so there's only a fairly small pie for those card-issuing banks to share with Apple.

It all comes down to tenths of a percent, but all that adds up to big bickies when you have - potentially - billions of dollars in transactions processed every week.

So, as of today, you can use Apple Pay if you have an iPhone of the correct flavour (iPhone 6/6 Plus or newer, any Apple Watch, or iPad 2/Pro/Mini3) and an ANZ card (Visa or Amex ... but not Mastercard, ANZ Access or ANZ Corporate cards).

Looking at ANZ's info page (http://applepay.anz.com/), they have a delightful little slam of their opposition in the Terms and Conditions (point #2:  "Apple Pay is not currently available at NAB, CommBank or Westpac"). Gotta love the bravado, but hope they remember to change that bit in a couple of months when the other banks finalise their own negotiations!

Remember that not only does Apple Pay mean easy payments for consumers at the checkout, but Apple Pay can be integrated into apps to pay for real-world goods and services without the 30% cut that Apple take for in-app purchases. Uber already has an option to pay for rides using your credit card using Apple Pay in some regions.

If you have an app idea or an existing app that could benefit from Apple Pay integration, give us a shout.

Confirmation of ANZ Visa card added to Apple Watch Wallet

Ready to start spending money using ANZ Visa via Apple Watch

Android Pay coming to Australia in 2016

On the back of the recent launch of the Apple Pay service in Australia (tied to American Express cards only), Google have announced that they have signed up ANZ, Westpac, IGNG Direct, Bendigo Bank, Bank SA, and a number of major Aussie retailers to their Android Pay service and will be launching it in Australia sometime in the first half of 2016.

The feature-set of the Android Pay service is almost identical to the Apple Pay service, in that it works with contactless payment systems already in place at many retail locations in the form of "PayPass" and other branded services ... as well as offering app developers the ability to integrate the service into their apps for fast in-app payment for real-world items such as T-shirts, hotel bookings, etc.

Android Pay will be able to store your Mastercard and Visa credit (and debit) cards. No word on whether bank-based American Express cards (or direct Amex cards) will work.

This is all good news for app publishers because it further cements the use of the mobile phone as a method of payment and thereby provides even more opportunities to make a grab for customers' wallets at points in time that are convenient to them.

Android Pay is hitting stores in Australia in the first half of 2016 (pic courtesy of Google/Android Pay)

If you have an app idea or would like to know more about what we do, give us a shout.

Apple Pay coming to Australia VERY soon (actually today)

With American Express recently emailing all Australian customers to let them know that Apple Pay is being launched in Australia soon, we thought it an opportune time to explain a bit about what this is and what it means to the average consumer.

Apple CEO, Tim Cook, also confirmed the launch of Apple Pay in Australia and Canada in an investor call a couple of weeks ago, and our own inquiries confirm that Amex and Apple are indeed planning to launch the Apple Pay service very soon in a shared launch.

What is Apple Pay?

Apple Pay is a service that allows the encoding of credit card information inside a device (like a mobile phone) in such a way that it can be safely transmitted when requested by another device (like a credit card terminal).

If you have ever used "Visa payWave" or a similar payment method by touching your credit card on a terminal in a shop (as opposed to swiping or inserting it into the machine), then you have already used the technology that underpins the financial transaction side of Apple Pay.

In the above case, the card contains an "NFC" (or Near Field Communication) chip that activates when it receives a magnetic jolt from the terminal. Incidentally, that magnetic jolt is why your credit card doesn't need to have a battery attached - it provides the power for the chip.

From a technical perspective, the point-of-sale service works a little like a secret knock. Think of the payment terminal tapping out the first part of "Shave and a Hair Cut", to which your NFC-enabled card or device responds with "Two Bits". Add a bunch of technical complexity of talking between different computers around the world in the blink of an eye and you have a credit card system that can safely authenticate that a card is a real card because it knows the secret knock when asked. ... and of course ignore the fact that everyone knows this particular sequence so it's hardly a secret knock.

Now, if we take the NFC chip that's embedded into a single credit card and we put it into a phone (or even a watch) and make it programmable so it can contain more than one credit card's worth of information and you have a system that can learn and contain all of a user's credit cards without having to re-issue a new device with every card ... and that's the beauty of the NFC phone payment revolution.

To add further security, we then make the user confirm their identity to ensure that their phone hasn't just been stolen. The simplest way of doing that is by a fingerprint scan, which Apple's compatible devices can already use as a key to unlock data within its encryption store.

Apple didn't invent this, and in fact many Android devices been able to do this for years ... however when three 500-pound gorillas get involved we all tend to want to sit up and pay attention.

American Express / Apple Pay, Coming Soon (image courtesy of American Express)

Gorillas ?  What The ??

So, if two of the 500-pound gorillas are American Express and Apple, who is the third ?

If you wanted to launch a new payment service in Australia, you would want a major retailer on board if for no other reason than it provides great B-roll for a news story. There really are only two retailers with a large-enough footprint in Australia to matter .... so which of Coles or Woolies is our third gorilla then ?

The answer is simple ... look at the back of your American Express card. If it has a symbol that looks like a sideways WiFi icon,  take it to both stores and grab some groceries. Which one lets you wave your card past the terminal for payment ?  We did exactly that and ... Bingo! Woolies is our third gorilla.

Granted, the existence of the third gorilla in this equation is speculation on our part, so let's all watch the nightly news and breakfast shows in a week or two when the official launch happens.

Which Apple Devices Can I Use ?

The Apple devices that incorporate NFC chips currently are: iPhone 6/6s, iPhone 6/6s Plus, and Apple Watch.

Oooooh - So I'll Be Able to Use My Apple Watch to Pay at the Supermarket ?

Yep!  And you'll look very cool doing it. Remember to wear your "I Love Apple" t-shirt as many selfies will be requested.

What's Next ?

The next exciting thing will hopefully be for developers (such as ourselves) to gain access to the NFC chips on Apple devices and program them to respond to proprietary NFC systems, such as keyless entry to cars and other doors.

UPDATE 19-Nov-2015 .... 

Apple Pay and Amex have officially launched in Australia today.

As of this morning, however, only the Apple Watch app is allowing the adding of a card to that device. The iPhone/iPad Wallet apps have not yet been activated. This is a fairly common strategy of releasing a system/feature to only a subset of users for a few hours to check load capacities and any real-world bugs that might come up ... so we expect that iPhone 6/6Plus/6s/6sPlus devices will be activated later today.

... and who is the third 500-pound gorilla ?  Actually it turns out Amex and Apple have done quite a bit of negotiation behind the scenes because the following major Aussie retailers are already able to accept Apple Pay payments as of this morning:  David Jones, McDonalds, Kmart, Bunnings, Coles and Woolworth. Some checkouts in some stores may be unable to accept the contact-less method of payment but for the most part this is working fine as of this morning.

Here's what the screen looks like on your Apple Watch when paying via Apple Pay

Media inquiries

iPhone 5 Rumours are Hotting Up!

With just under a week to go for the official launch of the iPhone 5 by Apple's massive media leviathan at an event in San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, rumours are rife about what we can expect from this latest iteration of the iconic smartphone.

How will it look?  .... How heavy will it be? .... Will it finally do the dishes for me?

From an app developer's perspective, however we are most interested in the technical specs - particularly the screen size, ratio, and resolution.

Why do we care ?

It's simple. Most apps that we develop are designed to look "just right" on whichever device they are used (from Samsung Galaxy S III to Samsung Notes and Galaxy Tabs ... through to every iteration of the iPhone and iPad). Our designers spend a lot of time moving things around on the screen to get the exact right look (for the user interface - or UI) and feel (for the user experience - UX).

When you spend so much effort on creating gorgeous apps, you don't want that messed up by random device changes.

Almost every time a new device is launched (particularly in the Android space, but also very much in the Apple orchard), screen dimensions change to keep in step with technological and cultural advances.

Sometimes we can scale apps, but when the ratio (how "square" a screen is) changes then we have to rewrite the "View" of the app to better suit that proportion.

And so it seems to be with the iPhone 5 (if rumours are to be believed). The resolution may change to 1136x640 pixels, which is very close to the 16:9 ratio that your widescreen TV at home works at, and the same ratio as the latest Samsung Galaxy S III device (which is even higher in resolution at 1280x720).

If that is the case, and it likely is since the old iPhone 4/4S proportions now look far too square for today's media-heavy users, then app developers like Creative Intersection will once again be inundated by client requests to update their apps to take advantage of the new iPhone 5 hardware and use the full screen real estate.

The possible new screen ratio for iPhone 5 (credit: macrumour.com)

If you have an app idea that you would like to discuss, or if you have an app that needs updating to work with new hardware (be it Apple, Samsung, Sony, HTC, Acer, etc), give us a shout.

A Day In The Life of Creative Intersection (timelapse)

We thought you might get a kick out of seeing our team working - in timelapse - on a major project rollout earlier this month.

As most of our regular clients know, we use a collaborative, cross-disciplinary approach where programmers flick work to designers and testers - and vice-versa.

This provides us with a robust and efficient way of creating and maintaining development projects of all sizes and in virtually all realms - including Web applications & Web-enabled services, iPhone/iPad, Android, Windows Mobile and standalone Mac/PC applications.

The clip can be viewed in full High Definition (1080p) so you can soak up all the timelapse goodness.

The board in the background shows the tasks needed to be completed for the project, and who is working on each task at the time.

iPad and iPhone Development ... Protect Your Ideas!

We get numerous inquiries from people all over Australia with their idea for the "next big thing" to hit the iPad or iPhone (and other platforms, of course) .... and for the most part they all have the same one question before we can even start talking:

"How can I protect my idea from being stolen by a development company ?"

Easy! We have Non-Disclosure Agreements (an NDA - a simple 4-page legal document) that, when signed by both parties (you and us), means that anything we discuss can be confidential and cannot be divulged to anyone else.

Our NDA's, in fact, are bi-directional ... meaning that we are also protected so we can openly throw ideas out there based on our extensive experience and know that those ideas are safe too.

All of our employees are also covered by Confidentiality Agreements with us - and this protection extends via the NDA to you.

Unlike some of the "top" iPad/iPhone Developers in Australia (Yeah - you know who you are!), we don't outsource overseas, so we have much tighter legal control over Intellectual Property (IP) that comes through our hands.

If your development company doesn't immediately offer an NDA, BEWARE! We have all heard stories of ideas suddenly turning up elsewhere after seemingly innocent discussions.

Don't let that happen to your next big idea.

iPad and iPhone Application Development Services

An endless world of possibilities presents itself when "game changing" devices like the Apple iPad are released to the public.

There are many thousands of commercial (and free) applications available through the iPad and iPhone App Store ... from GPS navigation and business presentation applications to fishing games and a virtual box of chocolates.

Endless opportunities exist for the right idea to be brought into life and on to an iPad or iPhone screen.

... and ... businesses can create their own limited-release applications for internal use without having to go through the effort of seeking approval through the App Store.

Just imagine - your property inspectors, sales force, or consultants can work while they are in the field and push the results of their work directly into a live database for storage, sharing, and processing.

At Creative Intersection, database-driven, online-enabled websites and applications have been our bread-and-butter for nearly 10 years now - and the iPad and iPhone are exciting new platforms to deliver exactly this sort of "Web 2.0" functionality.

We have recently purchased two iPad WiFi + 3G devices to use as test and demonstration machines for our iPad development work, and have already started working on cutting-edge ideas under our ongoing AusIndustry-approved Research & Development program.

Call us to arrange a meeting to discuss how our team of designers and developers can build your next iPad and iPhone application.