🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <id.FFUU.QCB@ferranti.com> peter@ferranti.com (peter da silva) writes:

>Free or very cheap software (such as the software implementing the very
>medium we're discussing this subject in) has been a driving force in the
>computer industry. Does the patent office recognise this as "publication?"

Unless the software is printed and in a library somewhere probably,
no. However, it recognizes it as a product offered for sale or
distribution, and that also counts as prior art if available to the
general public.  So it would still count against a patent.

Note that if not widely known, such a situation is not likely to come
to the attention of the PTO.  So they might grant the patent in
absence of their awareness of the prior art.  But it would count for
the defence in an infringement case.

  
-- 

Scott L. McGregor		mcgregor@netcom.com
President			tel: 408-985-1824
Prescient Software, Inc.	fax: 408-985-1936
3494 Yuba Avenue
San Jose, CA 95117-2967