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Yep, 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
by oelmekki 14y ago
Yep, 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.