I am not a patent expert by any means, however, I do have one, very
modest patent [#5,445,184] that I wrote myself and have two more pending
which I also wrote.
Several people have been referring to snippets from the Eolas patent and
drawing conclusions from these fragments. A patent is a very free form
thing and is usually composed of several sections such as an Abstract,
Introduction, Description of the Invention, Claims etc.. The
Description of the Invention section will present a typical embodiment
of the invention.
Now here is the significant part, 90 % of the patent does not mean a
damn thing. It is only to ensure a competent person in the field is
capable of reproducing the invention. The whole point of a patent is to
encourage the release of knowledge into the public domain. The carrot
used to induce a person to release a full explanation of their invention
is to guarantee rights to the invention for a period of time.
One thing and one thing only matters and that is the CLAIMS section of
the patent which is usually at the end of the patent. YOU BEAT A PATENT
BY GETTING AROUND THE CLAIMS.
The CLAIMS are numbered and almost all patents have several claims. The
trick is to make the first CLAIM VERY general and broad in nature, then
the second is more detailed, third more so.... The idea is if the
patent is challenged in court the first CLAIM maybe shot down, for
instance by prior art, but the second may stand. If the second does not
hold then you fall back to the third claim.
For example,
CLAIMS
(1) An invention whereby any means mechanical or electrical
information is recorded for future retrieval. (Quite a big claim here.)
(2) A device as claimed in (1) above, whereby alphabetic characters,
maps, images, diagrams and similar information is permanently recorded
by the placement by any means mechanical or electrical, of one or more
persistent material(s) composed of colored pigments on a second flat
material capable of retaining said persistent materials. ........
[Should cover most aspect of writing and printing. But not a floppy, or
hard drive.]
(3) A device as claimed in (2) above composed liquid or solid,
pigmented materials housed in cylinders conducive to being held in the
hand ......... [Now I am trying to just encompass colored pens and
pencils, and paper.]
So what is my point here?? If you want to discuss the impact of this
patent vis-a-vis Java READ THE CLAIMS.
Which BTW the way I have not yet done.
Regards,
Ray Racine
