🚀 go-pugleaf

In <700fq7$aoe$1@husk.cso.niu.edu> system@niuhep.physics.niu.edu writes:

>Note that "published" can be sending a description of it to yourself,
>the postmark and sealed envelope help establishs when you came up with the
>idea. 

Only in a "first to invent" system of patents, which I believe only the
US still uses and I thought I read they are also switching to a "first to
file" system.  I think publication implying prior art must be accessible
by the public under a "first to file" system. (When by the way did the
US swotch to the "first to invent" system? In the last century I am
pretty sure it was "first to file", as in the example of the telephone)

>>Though if two (or more) people come up with the same idea
>>independently of one another (and none knowing of the work/existence
>>of the other(s)), does this not hint that the patent might be invalid
>>because of the requirement that it be innovative and non-obvious (to a
>>skilled practitioner in the field)?

No. there are loads of examples of simultaneous invention-- eg the
telphone is one, and in another area, Evolution is another.
That two people independently come up with an idea is not necessarily an
indication of obviousness.