[GLLUG] EU patents

[Peter Rutherford]

>t.clarke said on Date: Tue Jul  1 09:25:01 2003

>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.

This is quite true. Someone tried to prevent the
patenting of 
the wind surfer by referring to a parish magazine in
the 
States where a door carrying a mast and a sail was
described.

afaik, a patent needs:
1. not to have been revealed before
2. to have some uniqueness
3. to incorporate a clear "inventive step"

Merely discussing an idea in a forum might not be seen
as adequate 
publicity for the pourposes of (1) above. But a web
site called 
"Inventors Anonymous" and indexed to get into the
first page of 
a Google search probably would be.

Remember how Mahatma Ghandi routed the British and the
Salt 
Laws. It could work again if there were to be a
trigger event of 
sufficient monstrousness. 

Peter R.

(Thanks to Sean for Installfest help last Saturday week)

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