Re: Apple II vs Atari 800

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

Rick Cortese wrote:
> Michael J. Mahon wrote:
>
> > Rick Cortese wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
> > Actually, the limitation is that the patent application must be *filed*
> > prior to public disclosure.
>
>
> I have two friends that are patent lawyers, well one died on me 
> recently, and they have both told me otherwise. More along the lines of 
> the patent *is* the disclosure that you are getting exclusive rights 
> because of. Once any public disclosure is made, the patent office well 
> see no need to give you any rights to reveal how you did something.

Not so, assuming he was talking about the US.

In most countries, publication closes the door to application, but
in the US it starts a 1 year clock.

> It was/is a bit of a problem because of the "Publish or Perish" and 
> trying to drum up business by telling other companies about the latest 
> greatest you just came up with. We could cover some problems with non 
> disclosure agreements but we still couldn't let info out into a public 
> forum.

And even nondisclosure is no good if you are trying to make a sale!
Revealing any of the IP in an effort to commercially advance the
invention starts the US clock--one year to file.

In any case, the point is that US patent considerations are not in
any way affected by revealing the details of an object already being
sold.  Offering it for sale *is* publication--as any reverse-engineer
will attest.  ;-)

-michael

NadaPong: Network game demo for Apple II computers!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."