(sorry Anthony, I meant to reply here) On Fri, 2002-04-19 at 13:36, Anthony E. Greene wrote:
In the U.S., there is a patent that can be used to allow anyone to use the idea. I seem to remember that it is something like registering a prior art with the Patent Office so that no one can try to get a restrictive patent on the idea -- the USPTO version of copyleft.
Isn't the prior art business just the thing about having *not* to do anything until a patent is filed on some idea? *Then* you can cause the patent to be void if you can prove that you've been using the idea for ages? Or is 'filing prior art' used to get that prove for a certainty for ideas where it's perhaps difficult to prove that you had the idea first? cheers -- vbi -- I sign e-mail using OpenPGP (rfc2440) compliant software.
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