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The U.S. recently (last year?) switched to a system where it's first to file, not first to invent - so that basically leaves everything open until someone spend
by loceng 13y ago
The U.S. recently (last year?) switched to a system where it's first to file, not first to invent - so that basically leaves everything open until someone spends money to patent it.. That's my current understanding anyhow. I can only imagine people who like seeing money spent (e.g. money being spent by default is good for the economy) and lawyers are the ones who pushed that change through.
- whoopdedo 13y agoThe lawyers had no problem making lots of many with first-to-invent since a patent dispute was a long arduous process of attempting to document the timeline of an invention that frequently ended with a judge having to decide a case where both sides present equally plausible claims. First-to-file gives a hard record of who wins when two people create the same invention in a short period of time. Neither situation is well suited to software patents because software patents shouldn't exist in the first place.