🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <58801@bbn.BBN.COM>, pplacewa@bbn.com (Paul Placeway) writes:

|> A (perhaps radical) solution to this would be a small change in the
|> patent laws: if you publish before the patent is GRANTED, you loose
|> any claims to the idea.  Journals could also help out by requiring the
|> author to sign away any propriatary claims to the ideas described.
|> Perhaps some organization similar to the FSF should start such a
|> journal.

  I suspect that you haven't gotten your first patent yet. It takes
years. If people couldn't put something on the market before the patent
was granted, the world would move VERY slowly. I do support the
requirement that the patented features be clearly labeled "patent
pending" to prevent a lot of wasted development.

  I still like the idea of a separate look and feel protection
mechanism, based on first file rather than first discovery. This
encourages people to reveal things early. Give protection for, say, two
years after filing, then if a product is not on the market the idea is
unprotected, or is the product is shipping the idea gets another three
years. Never more than five years protection, and loss of protection for
not using the idea. No years of littigation on first discovery either.

  I'm sure I've said it before.
--
Bill Davidsen (davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.com, uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen)
  GE Corp R&D Center, Schenectady NY
  Moderator of comp.binaries.ibm.pc and 386users mailing list
       "This is your PC. This is your PC on OS/2. Any questions?"