On Wed, 3 Mar 1999, Steve Sabram wrote:
> The running cost of a patent filing professionally is running in the sum of
> $20K now for domestic and international filings. It can be done for less if
> you want to put more personal time into it though. Also, there was a ruling
> about five years ago stating that pure software concepts such as scrolling text
> in a window or a push button cannot be patented since it is not directly
> connected to a process or tangible invention (i.e. hardware). This was done
> so guys like us can write something, claim copyright and not fear patent
> infringement from just writing code. Thank you AEA!
Facinating, I wasn't aware of that. I assume it wasn't retroactive, as the
XOR patent would have still been active within that period.
(Up until recently, when it expired, anyone using XOR to nondestructively
display a cursor in an application needed to pay a hefty license fee to a
company that existed solely to collected license fees from their patent on
using XOR to nondestructively display cursors. They were the bane of the
CAD industry, apparently. I'm sorry I don't have the patent number handy.)
--
Kenneth Albanowski ([EMAIL PROTECTED], CIS: 70705,126)
