There is no such thing as a "provisional patent". You can file a provisional application prior to filing your actual application, but all that buys you is the ability to say "patent pending".
As for Zuckerburg, yes, the fact that he allegedly stole their idea is the whole point. Assuming anything in the whole ConnectU/Facebook idea really qualifies as patentable (hey, its your example of innovation happening with an individual inventor), of course. They had an idea, but did not have the resources to implement it. So they shopped it around to find someone who could help them implement it, and one of the guys they talked to allegedly stole their idea and implemented it himself. That is exactly the concern I had raised. Now in this case they were able to file a lawsuit, but they were primarily alleging that he had violated a business agreement that he had made to write their application. On Mar 4, 1:44 am, Cédric Beust ♔ <[email protected]> wrote: > On Thu, Mar 3, 2011 at 10:40 PM, Nick Brown <[email protected]> wrote: > > Well I'd say the inability for independent developers to get patents > > granted within a reaonable timeframe prevents them from trying to shop > > their ideas around. > > As far as I know, there are mechanisms that address this, such as > provisional patents. > > > And wasn't Zuckerberg sued for stealing the idea > > of Facebook himself? > > Yes, but this has nothing to do with this topic. > > -- > Cédric -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
