Thought I'd pass this on... -Rishab srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian) writes:
!010394 PTO accepting USENET FAQs as formal prior art
It seems that the US Patent Office is accepting Internet USENET FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions - periodic postings on USENET groups with questions and answers) as prior art. As you see in the following entry from my software prior art database, one of the Other References is to a cryptography FAQ. If any knows if the European Patent Office is accepting USENET FAQs, and has an example, let me know.
Thus if an examiner objects to your use of a FAQ as prior art, cite this patent (NTIPAFCAP*). It probably would be helpful if the PTO came out with a quick guideline to a consistent way of doing so. I suppose archiving FAQs is one more thing I can add to my databases.
It's nice to see the PTO embracing part of the Internet, even as it rejects other parts of the Internet. Eventually, though, the PTO will have to choose one or the other.
Greg Aharonian Internet Patent News Service (for subscription info, send 'help' to patents@world.std.com ) (for prior art search services info, send 'prior' to patents@world.std.com ) (for WWW patent searching, try http://sunsite.unc.edu/patents/intropat.html ====================
TYP[USPAT] NUM[5371794] ASS[Sun Microsystems] CUN[USX] ISD[19941206] CLS[380/21] ART[222] LOC[] GRG[] TIT[Method and apparatus for privacy and authentication in wireless networks] ORF[5] ORFTXT[ Authentication and Authenticated Key Exchanges, Authors: Diffie, Oorschot & Weiner, Published by Designs, Codes & Cryptography 2, 107-125, .COPYRGT.1992 Kluwer Academic Publishers. The First Ten Years Of Public Key Cryptography, Author: Whitfield Diffie, Reprinted from Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 76, No. 5, May 1988.
Overview of Cryptology: Summary Of Internet Cryptology Frequently Asked Questions (Oct. 1992). ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The Keys To Privacy and Authentication, Publication by RSA Data Security, Inc., 100 Marine Parkway, Redwood City, Calif. 94065. (Oct. 1993). Answers To Frequently Asked Questions About Today's Cryptography, Author: Paul Fahn, RSA Laboratories, 100 Marine Parkway, Redwood City, Calif. 94065 (Sep. 1992). ]
=============================================================================
(NTIPAFCAP* = Not that issued patents are formally citable as precedent).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rishab Aiyer Ghosh "In between the breaths is rishab@dxm.ernet.in the space where we live" rishab@arbornet.org - Lawrence Durrell Voice/Fax/Data +91 11 6853410 Voicemail +91 11 3760335 H 34C Saket, New Delhi 110017, INDIA