Graham, "Prior art" is a lawyer's term, not mine. If, say, I published a paper in 1977 describing a scheme for extracting the square root of a non-negative integer by successive subtraction, using the fact that n^2 is the sum of the first n odd integers, i.e.,
2^2 = 4 = 1 + 3 3^2 = 9 = 1 + 3 + 5 4^2 = 16 = 1+ 3 + 5 + 7 5^2 = 25 = 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 + 9 . . . a later attempt to patent such a scheme would [almopst certainly] fail. This relation is due to Fr Marin Mersenne (1588-1648), but while no mathematical relation is itself patentable a device based upon it, which might otherwise be patentable, would not be if my paper describing such a device were known to the relevant Patent Office. Thus, while my paper might well be copyrighted (most published papers are), that is not the point; what is crucial is that the putative ' invention', being already in the public domain, is non-novel and thus not patentable. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
