"First to file" refers to a different technical timing issue. It has always been the case that public use or description of an idea was supposed to make it imp

"First to file" refers to a different technical timing issue. It has always been the case that public use or description of an idea was supposed to make it impossible to get a patent. That's a dead letter today. The patent office will eventually approve just about anything if you're persistent enough and use a thesaurus to make your claims seem a little different. For instance, an East Texas jury just awarded a $2 million dollar verdict against NewEgg for using public key encryption in SSL. The patent was applied for in 1989. Whit Diffie, of course, invented and published public key encryption in 1976 and testified at the trial. The judge told the jury that the Patent Office was entitled to the presumption of validity over Mr. Diffie.