[Gllug] [OT} Prior art

[Richard Jones]

On Sat, Apr 02, 2005 at 10:41:34AM +0100, Daniel Clusells wrote:
> Does anyone know there projects from MSc, PhD... (I don't whether
> any kind of project) could be considered as a publication, and
> therefore as prior art?

In the UK, yes.

In the UK, just putting up a web page is enough to establish prior
art.

> Anyway I suppose they are a source of ideas in which many software
> patent pirates feed on.

Unfortunately this isn't how patent application works.  It's very easy
to get a patent.  I've applied[1] for a couple and got one on ideas
which would hardly be considered inventive.  Only a very minimal
amount of checking is done at application time.  When I was applying,
doing the search even was optional, not sure if that's still the case.
Anyway, it's mainly up to the court to decide, but court cases are
hugely expensive, and few cases make it this far.  So instead these
information monopoly companies rely on a kind of government-backed
extortion - threatening calamitous court fees, but willing to settle
for a "mere" 25K or so.

Rich.

[1] At two companies where I formerly worked.

-- 
Richard Jones, CTO Merjis Ltd.
Merjis - web marketing and technology - http://merjis.com
Team Notepad - intranets and extranets for business - http://team-notepad.com
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