The Eolas-Microsoft case--patent ending?

TalkBack 18 of 22:

Next »

« Previous

• Thread View
• Flat View

True tales from the trenches

So I know how broken the system is.

One company had a patent on something they called a pulse damper. It depended on a reservoir of compressible fluid that was next to, but not part of, a fluid flow. The patent was applied for, and granted in the US only. Someone in France applied for a French patent, and changed the shape of the reservoir. This was sufficient for France to grant them a patent on an "improvement." The company was small, so they hadn't been able to apply for or defend their patent internationally. In my opinion, the US company got screwed.

In another case, the engineer devised a way to remove a machining process to create a certain type of screw. He sent all the work in, and the patent was rejected. Years later when I was creating and filing a database for him, he looked again at the "prior art" the patent office sent him in rejecting the patent. He then noticed, that the patent had the separate machining operation that his process removed. So the patent office was in error in the rejection. Still the engineer should have examined the rejection more closely and fought it, but I can understand his reluctance given the cost.

In another example, a company I was working for applied for a patent on a device that added a support/shield for a plug. The original application was rejected because the idea was not novel. They subsequently reapplied for the same device under a business identification patent and it was accepted. In my opinion, the first application had more validity than the second.

Looked at from my perspective, its a lottery. And the companies with the lots of bucks get repeated spins for the prize.

Posted by: Rabid Conservative   Posted on: 03/17/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• The Impact of Virtualization Software on Operating Environments VMware Today's use of virtualization technology allows IT professionals to ... Download Now
• Building the Virtualized Enterprise with VMware Infrastructure VMware VMware virtualization software has been adopted by over 120,000 enterprise ... Download Now
• The True Costs of Virtual Server Solutions VMware In an economic environment that is repeatedly heralding the message "do ... Download Now