4 ms·
What you're describing is known as "prior art": simply publish your idea anywhere public, and it automatically becomes invalid for patenting. You don't even nee
by tomerv 14y ago
What you're describing is known as "prior art": simply publish your idea anywhere public, and it automatically becomes invalid for patenting. You don't even need to implement anything.
- vlasta2 14y agoIs there a well know central place for this? I once considered starting a web site for this sole purpose - to let people publish their ideas to establish prior art - but I don't have time to manage yet another web.
- oelmekki 14y agoYep, I'm aware of the prior art rule, except : a) it's about things that should have been actually used, where a patent is about concepts b) scope of the idea is not clearly defined and so could be argued with, when a real patent definition for general public use would prohibit that. And that's excatly the point for IBM to issue protective patents, I think.
- RyanMcGreal 14y agoAs I understand it, patents apply to applied inventions, not to concepts. In other words, to patent an idea, you need a working model. A patent is a time-limited legal monopoly on making the application, granted in exchange for disclosure of what the application does and how it works.
- talmand 14y agoI've seen numerous patents for concepts with no working models and not just software patents. They do explain how such a device would work and many do seem reasonable, but they often will not have a built and working example.
- anonymouz 14y agoThis is how it should work, but unfortunately it seems that the patent examination process does not work that well: Often trivial patents or patents with prior art are granted anyway, and one then has to risk going to court to invalidate the patent, which is highly undesirable for e.g. a private person developing free software in their spare time. Hopefully, in the US this will improve with the new patent reform. Personally I believe that we should simply abolish software patents: Innovation in the software world seems to thrive without a patent process too, and in fact the patent process seems to be a major hurdle for small players to enter an existing market here.
- utopkara 14y agoPrior art in itself does not provide a defensive punch. But, if a company X decides to go about suing everybody using Linux and databases, because it competes with X's business, a large patent portfolio will act as a big stick for defense against X, and other possible Xs considering the same tactic.