🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <uak76INNr3e@early-bird.think.com> barmar@think.com (Barry Margolin) writes:
>OK, consider this alternative.  They don't pay $10K, but publish a paper on
>their novel idea.  Predator Joe sees the product and/or the paper and
>applies for a patent on the product.  As in your scenario, the USPTO grants
>the patent.
>
>However, the original company was smart.  They keep a watch on patents that
>are granted (I assume there's a subscription service that will send you
>abstracts of new patents).  ...

Problem is, someone has to be paid to slog through the output of the
USPTO to watch out for that patent.  This can quickly run to more than
$10K of cost, though there may be other benefits offsetting this cost.

Of course, several startups could share the cost of hiring one person
to be the USPTO filter.  Since the filter person is only searching for
duplication of already-published work, there is no problem with
leakage of trade secrets, and the cost is reduced.  This almost sounds
like a service that the FSF (or some FSF-affiliated consulting outfit)
could take on.

David Chase
Sun