[Gllug] Euro Patent Law

[Rich Walker]

Alain Williams <addw at phcomp.co.uk> writes:

> On Tue, Jul 01, 2003 at 09:22:53AM +0100, t.clarke wrote:
> > I too feel that the prospect of computer programs being patentable rather than
> > copyrightable is a miserable one.
> > 
> > As a matter partly of curiosity, does anyone in the group have any knowledge of
> > patent law in regard to what I believe may be called 'prior art'.  I may be
> > totally wrong here, but I am under the impression that you can't patent
> > anything that has already been invented, or for that matter somnething that you
> > yourself have already placed in the lublic domain.
> > 
> > If this is the case, then possibly there should be a website someplace where we
> > can all 'publish' all the trivial and non-trivial code we ever wrote, on the
> > basis that its highly likely that anything the big boys want to patent will
> > probably contain elements/ideas of stuff already published?
> 
> Nice idea, the trouble is that you then need to go to court to try to convince
> a non technical jury that you do have prior art, for instance:
> 	These programs are completely different, one is in C, the other
> 	in Java/Perl/...

Actually, once a patent has been published by the Patent Office there is
a formal period in which an objection can be filed - a chap we know used
to, as part of his job, read the publication register and file
objections to any patent that might interfere with his companies
business...

[snip]


-- 
rich walker | technical person | Shadow Robot Company | rw at shadow.org.uk
front-of-tshirt space to let     251 Liverpool Road   |
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