the public key minefield

smb at research.att.com smb at research.att.com
Sat Sep 25 18:35:52 PDT 1993


	 Doesn't a patent have to have enough information for a person skilled
	 in the art to construct a prototype?  

	 I publish for the first time here my invention.  I will patent it with
	 in a years time.  
	                        Striped Vegetables

	 ----
	 This isn't enough for anyone to do anything.  If I were more
	 specific, I might have something patentable, but then by
	 claims wouldn't be as broad.  If you figured out how to make
	 an anti-gravity device.  That device would be patentable.  The
	 concept of "anti-gravity" device is not patentable.  If I
	 could duplicate the effect of your anti-gravity device without
	 using any of the same novel mechanisms.  My device would be
	 separately patentable.

You seem to have missed my earlier summary of how patents are structured.
A separate part of the patent from the claims describes how to build the
claimed device.  The claims aren't supposed to.






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