On Thu, 21 Oct 2004, Randy Presuhn wrote:
From: "Pekka Savola" <pekkas(_at_)netcore(_dot_)fi>
To: "Paul Hoffman / VPNC" <paul(_dot_)hoffman(_at_)vpnc(_dot_)org>
Cc: <ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org>
Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 1:27 PM
Subject: Re: Shuffle those deck chairs!
...
Hmm. Maybe what the IETF could also find useful is an informal
repository where people who believe they've found prior art [or
possibly some other information] can insert short text and pointers to
such work. (Obviously with disclaimers.)
...
With the US moving to a European-style "first-to-file" discipline,
how would this help?
I don't know the details of such discipline, and luckily enough don't
even want to.
But trying to think of this logically, "first-to-file" patent process
should just mean that if there are two people who claim to have
invented the something, and each separately files a patent on it, the
patent office just looks which one filed it first, not which one
actually invented it first.
I don't see how that applies in the situation where someone files a
patent, but there is ample evidence that the approach has been in
wide-spread use for e.g., 5 years since it was filed, but those people
who originally "invented it" did not file a patent.
Hence, it would seem natural that the concept of "prior art" and
whether the technology is sufficiently novel if other people have been
doing it for a long time should still hold some weight even in
"first-to-file" disciplines.
Remember, we are not trying to pick who of the N patent applicants
should be granted the patent; we're here to prove, usually after the
fact, that the stuff was already invented or commonplace, and the
patent is not novel, based on the prior art, and there is good chance
that it would not be enforceable.
--
Pekka Savola "You each name yourselves king, yet the
Netcore Oy kingdom bleeds."
Systems. Networks. Security. -- George R.R. Martin: A Clash of Kings
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