More patent idiocy

Yes, Don, your web page about patents disillusioned me about the systam long ago. Now everything I run into about them gets a cynical prejudice. And I'm rarely disappointed.

Keep up the good work.

Good day!

--
_____________________
Christopher R. Carlen
crobc@bogus-remove-me.sbcglobal.net
SuSE 9.1 Linux 2.6.5

its

??? "directing a beam of invisible light" ??? How the heck does one direct something invisible, and How the heck does a hand-held laser apparatus produce invisible light?

Only the *cat* has the right to sue...

Can you see the beam? I can't. I can only see where it strikes something solid.

I can't see the "beam" in the garage door safety, but I can "direct" it toward the receiver. I can't "see" the beam of a dopler radar unit, but I can direct it.

Infrared or UV LEDs? Dark Emitting Axial Diodes? ;-)

The light isn't invisible, only the beam. The point is that the cat doesn't correlate the sneaky dot with the human "directing" it. ...at least not for a while. I had a pointer that "drew" an outline of a mouse (I don't think the cats really cared). After a while our cats figured out the scam and gave up the chase.

--
  Keith

Patents enabled Steve Wittman and Percival Spencer, to name two of hundreds, to live most of their lives as eccentric inventors with money instead of eccentric factory workers or ranch hands who invented as time and money permitted (or usually didn't).

Patents are why McIntosh Laboratories still sells a fair number of its amplifiers to transformer wind houses for bench test gear. Patents are why no one but Leitz made M-mount lenses for Leicas (or bodies for M-mount lenses) for almost forty years.

A good patent for a good product coupled with merchandising and marketing skills is still a _good thing_ to have.

Don is high-centered on the fact that many patents can be broken by Prior Art with enough work. Many can, but it rarely happens, for good reasons. Don's Magic Sinewaves, if they ever do really work-I'm not saying they do or don't-will be a test case.

Blatant violations of clear patents for desirable products can sometimes be fought on a contingent fee basis, but the goal generally is to get someone else to fight it for you. Colossal companies will spend high sums to beat a patent on occasion but the smaller ones are usually happy to buy you out, because beating you means everyone can then use the idea. Meaning your huge legal bill and frequent bad publicity gives you no comparative advantage.

No one is infringing the Ellison throttle body injector, a patented variation on the old POSA carburetor bringing stupid prices for two decades now.

A patent in the United States was, until recently, good for 17 years. One renewal was possible, which takes you to 34.

The new term is 20 years. Apparently no renewal is possible.

Other nations have different patent requirements and lengths. In the case of cameras, we no longer manufacture them in the US. The potential manufacturers of M Leica system cameras, besides Leica, were all in Japan. They have to comply with the patent laws in Japan in any case, and then in the countries to which they export the product. Since camera manufacture is economical only if they can sell in all, or at least most, major markets, it was only in the mid-1990s the M Leica mount was no longer covered, at least in enough markets to make it worthwhile.

Why? At that time patent protection only lasted 17 from issue (now

20 years from file). Forty years??! All of these patents have long since run out.

So is a little knowledge.

Patents can be broken with lotsa money, sure. I believe his larger point is that they're worthless for those without an equal pile of bucks to defend the patent. All a patent gives you is a right to sue.

--
  Keith

Show me an example. Even the Gould patent fight was paid for by those who chose to license it early.

...unless they hold a similar and/or more encompassing patent they're trying to defend.

Ok. If...

Any patent protection have expired in "two decades". That's sort of the idea.

--
  Keith

its

Basically, the guy patented the use of a small battery-powered laser as a cat exercising device. If you have never seen this, you are missing something quite funny.

The cat will chase the laser dot all over the room. If you let the cat "catch" the laser dot, it will cover it with one paw, then, when it sees the dot is now on top of its paw, it will cover that paw with the other paw. Then it pulls out the lower paw and puts IT on top. It really is amusing.

Probably the biggest tipoff that the patent application was filed as a joke is the mention of ferrets.

Somewhere there is also a patent for a technique of swinging sideways on a child's swing. I'm too lazy to look up the number.

--Mac

A patent is a bargaining chip in court and is only useful if: a) The patent is for something people want. b) You can afford to enforce it.

--
Dirk

The Consensus:-
The political party for the new millenium
http://www.theconsensus.org

A patent is good for 14 years, *not* "almost 40 years". Furthermore, one has to be rich to litigate a patent and win; makes no difference which side is the "owner".

Not being mechanically inclined, i would appreciate illumination concerning the Ellison and the POSA (whatever that is).

"All a patent gives you is a right to sue." - not quite. *ANYBODY* has a right to sue, and for anything they damn well please. A patent, like a (registered) copyright, is de-facto proof of ownership, period.

Which isn't worth much in a court case. You have to prove exactly what you own, re-defining your patent's words and phrases to show relevance to the supposed violator's product. He gets to argue for a different interpretation. If this part goes OK, he'll attack the patent validity, claiming you didn't properly show the examiner all the prior art. A whole new round of word and phrase definitions gets to be argued, with discovery, depositions, expert witnesses, court materials and stacks of lawyers charging $300 an hour. The typical cost for prosecuting a "shoo-in" case, $5M. For a serious case, > $20M.

--
 Thanks,
    - Win

Why? Ferrets are about 1E6 times more playful than cats for a given stimulus level.

Pocket lint!