Date Arrived: 10Sep_19:13:47 From: roach_s@alph.swosu.edu ----------- ...

Back up just a minute. Aren't inventions protected if the patent is pending? If not, why do such well known companies who undoubtly have savvy legal council produce products stamped "patent pending"?

I've always regarded it as "We applied for a patent and it hasn't actually been refused yet, so keep off." [The following is based on various magazine articles, net discussions etc.] Until the last year or so (when it harmonised with GATT) US law produced "submarine patents". These were patents applied for, subject to a period of waiting of course, and then (if granted) were valid _from the date of the application_ i.e. back-dated. This meant you could quite innocently find yourself being clobbered by a patent that had only just sprung into existence. There were other problems including the US granting patents to the 'inventor' - rather than the 'first to file'. 'First to file' is actually a good indication of who the inventor is. The other scheme just got inventor-identity disputed by the lawyers. For a vision of patents as they should be, I know nothing to beat Phil Karn's web pages. http://people.qualcomm.com/karn/patents.html -- ############################################################## # Antonomasia ant@notatla.demon.co.uk # # See http://www.notatla.demon.co.uk/ # ##############################################################