I have been having 'discussions' over the years with
various associates, regarding the idea of NOT
patenting free energy or gravity control discoveries,
with the idealistic and utopian BELIEF that they could
be freely shared with all and
BECAUSE they had been released in the public domain,
they would NOT BE PATENTABLE.
This would prevent any person or company from
attempting to patent it as their own for the purpose
of controlling use or making undeserved money from
research they never did and should never be allowed to
profit by or control.
I just heard a discussion on the radio about a guy
named Dickers or something like that who claims to
have come up with a simple Y2K fix, patented it and is
now going after many big companies trying to recover.
These big companies under attack by this 'inventor'
say the information has long been public and he has no
right to any recovery because they never even heard of
him or 'his' fix. They also say that because the
information has long been public from many sources
(one comment said 30 earlier, public versions existed
long before this guy came along), it could not be
patented. This was on Public Radio..on 01/10/99 about
6:45AM in Dallas.
Now one of my friends says the 'inventor' has up to a
year after making any announcement, publicly or
otherwise to apply for the patent.
I checked on it and found the following information
directly from the horse's mouth, the US Patent Office;
The fact that an invention cannot be found by
searching in the PTO's patent databases does not mean
that the invention is patentable. Both of the PTO's
patent databases begin with patents granted since
1976. A complete patentability search must consider
all prior art, including earlier patents, foreign
patents and NON-PATENT LITERATURE.
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/doc/general/novelty.htm
In order for an invention to be patentable it must be
new as defined in the patent law, which provides that
an invention cannot be patented if: “
(a) the invention was known or used by others in this
country, or patented or described in a printed
publication in this or a foreign country, before the
invention thereof by the applicant for patent,” or
“(b) the invention was patented or described in a
printed publication in this or a foreign country or in
public use or on sale in this country more than one
year prior to the application for patent in the United
States . . .”
If the invention has been described in a printed
publication anywhere in the world, or if it has been
in public use or on sale in this country before the
date that the applicant made his/her invention, a
patent cannot be obtained.
If the invention has been described in a printed
publication anywhere, or has been in public use or on
sale in this country more than one year before the
date on which an application for patent is filed in
this country, a patent cannot be obtained.
In this connection it is immaterial when the invention
was made, or whether the printed publication or public
use was by the inventor himself/herself or by someone
else.
If the inventor describes the invention in a printed
publication or uses the invention publicly, or places
it on sale, he/she must apply for a patent before one
year has gone by, otherwise any right to a patent will
be lost.
------------------------
An interesting dichotomy. If the invention has been
described in a printed publication (internet and
public email would be included) for more than one
year, the device becomes unpatentable.
How deep does DESCRIBED go? Construction details,
operational overview or instructions, description of
what it does or how it does it?
Any comments?
=====
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Please respond to jdecker@keelynet.com
as I am writing from my work email of
jwdatwork@yahoo.com.........thanks!
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