At 5:35 PM 2/7/5, Jones Beene wrote: > >This is naive. Trade secrets are routinely withheld. I >have never seen a patent successfully challenged for >withholding a trade secret, although it is definitely >in the wording of the patent law. I suspect most >patents withhold many secrets. It is just way too easy >to say that the challenger was "unskilled" in the >art...
It might be naive, but I have been personally involved in a case where two patents were invalidated for that very reason. The real reason is that the patents, like most patents, shouldn't have been issued in the first place. "Inventors" who patent unoriginal ideas tend to mouth off a lot about how clever they are, and in so doing open themselves to this sort of action. M. _______________________________________________ Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com The most personalized portal on the Web!
