On Wed, Jul 28, 1999 at 11:50:09AM -0300, Juan Carlos Castro y Castro wrote:
> Paul Preziosi wrote:
> The NSA bullied the patent agencies into accepting a monstrosity called a
> "blind patent", in which the NSA creates a technology, files its details to
> the patent agency which is not allowed to make it public (perversion #1),
> and if someone manages to build up something similar from scratch -
> effectively reinventing it with all merits - the document pops up and the
> patent is enforced (perversion #2). Worse, the expiration clock start to
> tick at THAT moment, not when the original paper was filed (perversion #3).
>
> Is it really how things happen? I find it hard to believe.
I don't think this i quite what is happening (though I am not in any way
and expert in anything having to do with the law)...
To actually get a patent you have to fill out a lot of paperwork... Many
companies have been known to take advantage of this paperwork to drag on the
patent filing for a very long amount of time...
So here's what (I think) happens:
1) organization A files for a patent... the patent protection begins at this
point, though the content of the filing is not public.
2) organization A keeps screwing with the paperwork, so they aren't granted
the patent, but they aren't rejected outright either.
3) organization B files for a similar patent...
4) the USPTO reject organization B's patent application, saying that there is
already a similar patent being applied for...
5) the USPTO tells organization A to stop stalling, or they'll grant the patent
to organization B, so organization A finally stops stalling and does the
paperwork correctly, hence getting the patent, and making its contents public.
I've also heard these referred to as "Submarine Patents"....
-Vik
--
vikram kulkarni
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Reflections | Projections 1999
http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/conference/
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