On 07/23/2018 10:25 AM, Bruce Momjian wrote: >> Isn't 'defensive', in patent-speak, used to mean 'establishing prior >> art usable to challenge future patent claims by others on the same >> technique'? >> >> Is there any way that conditions of use, or lack of them, on an >> existing patent, would make it unusable in that context? > > It doesn't have to be a patent on the same technique; this URL was > referenced in the thread: > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensive_termination
Ah, a very different understanding of defensive use of a patent, and one that I can see would lose force if there could be no conditions on its use. I was thinking more of the use of a filing to establish prior art so somebody else later can't obtain and enforce a patent on the technique that you're already using. Something along the lines of a statutory invention registration[1], which used to be a thing in the US, but now apparently is not, though any filed, published application, granted or abandoned, can serve the same purpose. That, I think, would still work. -Chap [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Statutory_Invention_Registration
