> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ... > The problem is that you can publish the same document, and then some > sleazeball competitor patents it, because the patent office does such > a poor job of researching "prior art".
That seems to be based on the false notion that the patent office checks even its own documents for prior art. >If http://www.bustpatents.com didn't have a reason to exist, I'd agree with you The reasons I see for that and similar publications do not involve the assumption that government bureaucrats and everyone else involved in the "IP protection" business don't see that their own interests lie in what can be charitably summarized as erring on the side of accepting instead of rejecting patent applications. Look for the notion of "blocking patents" in the 19th Century in such as in development of firearms. Unless you think everyone in the 19th Century was a superstitious and ignorant idiot or that all real science and technology appear after 1950, look at the many obviously silly patents from the first century of the extortion racket. Vernon Schryver [EMAIL PROTECTED]
