pjt@.cs.su.oz.au (Peter John Treloar) (07/02/90)
Computer Software Patents ========================== Perhaps I should start with an anecdote about the Australian software patent situation. A few years ago I applied for recognition of my CS degree as one of the requirements for registration as a patent attorney only to be rejected by the patents board who said that computer software wasnt sufficently in the realm of patentable subject matter !!! (Hence I am presently back at uni studing physics while I finish off all the other patent law exams ) A number of interesting issues have been discussed which I shall try to treat separately: PHILOSOPHY OF PATENTS ====================== The history Ive studied goes something like this: A long time ago in the land far far away (England), the gov. wanted to encourage new foreign trades and so they would grant exculsive rights to foreigners for 14 years (This was said to be the term of 2 apprentiships) to practice the trade in England. The same idea is still the basis today in that the state grants a monopoly in return for the detailed description of the invention which is on the public record. Why should we encourage computer patents? well I think for the same reason, they may not be great but they have proven benefits to industry and commerce. Of course the famous counter example is Coca-Cola's secret formula ;-). One idea that may be worth thinking about is the inventor who for example discovers a way to crack those big digits they have been talking about in sci.crypt in polynomial time rather that exponential time. He has too options, one try to get a patent in which case the gov. will probably refuse on secrecy grounds or say you cant get one, well thats ok, she just goes and picks up a killer micro :-) moves to some obscure mountain ranch and for the next infinity years charges a fortune from the highest bidder to crack secret codes. You see publication and patents may not always be in your $ interest and its all just weights in the balance. Anyway if i get time I'll do a followup article here but Im going to lunch now. Publication: ============ Generally the united states is the only country that does not require ABSOLUTE NOVELTY. By absolute novelty I mean that publication in any form before the filing date of the patent will invalidate the patent. The US gives a 12 month GRACE PERIOD from publication to the filing of the patent where by the patent will not be invalid by means of the publication. Publication rules do tend to vary from country to country, in Australia and UK publication consists of telling anybody about it where that person is not under a duty to maintain secrecy. I forget the US rule but I think it has similar effects except that the publication has to be in printed form. As to prior publication of anothers work to usurp a patent, again in most countries its a question of general availablilty and that general availability means accessable to the public even if it requires substantial effort to locate the information. However you must be careful here to distinguish between that concepts of NOVELTY and OBVIOUSNESS. The general rule in australia and many other countries being that to invalidate on the grounds of Novelty the disputed patent must be contained within the 4 corners of a single prior document whereas for OBVIOUSNESS you can MOSIAC documents together so long as each document is part of the COMMON GENERAL KNOWLEDGE in the field. COSTS ====== About Au $4000 (Au $1 = US $0.70) all up for your homecountry and about $2000 - $3000 for each other country speaking the same language and add another $2000 if they speak a different language. PATENT SPECIFICATION ==================== Contain many standardized parts the main ones are the Detailed description of the invention and the claims. The detailed description requires you to describe the invention to the level that would allow the skilled technician to carry out your invention without the exercise of any inventive faculty. This is the part the state requires in return for the monopoly grant. Claims are just like staking out claims during the goldrush :-). Hence they are normally drafted to be initally as wide as possible in the hope that they dont encompass any other prior published docs. However you dont really know what else is out there and so you normally draft a series of claims each one slightly narrower than the preceeding one just in case something turns up to invalidate the wider ones. INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS ========================= Most western countries belong to the Patent Co-operation Treaty which allows for the claiming of a foreign country filing date to be the same as the home country filing date etc etc. Anyway back to studing the patent exams ...... Peter Treloar pjt%cs.su.oz
thomson@beaches.toronto.edu (Brian Thomson) (07/03/90)
In article <1078@cluster.cs.su.oz> pjt@.cs.su.oz.au (Peter John Treloar) writes: >Most western countries belong to the Patent Co-operation >Treaty which allows for the claiming of a foreign country >filing date to be the same as the home country filing date etc >etc. For what that is worth. In US patent applications, it is the date of invention rather than the date of filing that is critical, and if you can provide documentary evidence (eg. notarized inventor's notebook) that you actually invented something before another applicant you may be granted the patent in spite of filing later. At least, if you are an American you can. Foreign applicants are deemed to have invented on their filing date, and are not given the same opportunity to prove their priority. -- Brian Thomson, CSRI Univ. of Toronto utcsri!uthub!thomson, thomson@hub.toronto.edu