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The 'obviousness' test is (unfortunately) more about rejecting trivial patents; not rejecting things that are clear logical extensions of what has come before.
by roc 15y ago
The 'obviousness' test is (unfortunately) more about rejecting trivial patents; not rejecting things that are clear logical extensions of what has come before.
- tptacek 15y agoSomething that blew my mind the first time I worked with IP lawyers (I've been induced to file a bunch of patents): you can patent extensions of other people's ideas; for instance, even though someone else came up with tiered FEC multicast file transfer protocols, you can patent the application of that idea to some problem, like, tiered FEC file transfer of mailing list messages. I've never filed a patent like that ("Nice idea you got there! Shame if I came up with a bunch of other ideas based on it!"), but I guess it's obvious when you think about it.