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Chip Firm Hit By 45-Year-Old Patent

Posted by timothy on from the welcome-to-the-free-marketplace-of-ideas dept.

JPMH writes "The Register is reporting that a Taiwanese chip foundry is being sued over two chemistry patents, one over 45 years old. The patents at issue were filed in 1957 and 1964, but are still in force because they were not granted until 1987 and 1992 respectively. The first patent, 4,702,808, details an apparatus and method for initiating chemical reactions by focusing "radiant energy, such as a laser" onto streams of particles. The second patent, 5,131,941 also details an apparatus and method for initiating chemical reactions, but this time radiation is used to provide the energy kick needed to get the compounds to interact."

4 of 375 comments (clear)

  1. In other news, by squidinkcalligraphy · · Score: 5, Funny

    General Motors is suing competing manufacturers of the so-called `horseless carriage' for infringing their patent 236635849, which specifies a way in which the `wheel' - a flat, cylindrical object - can be used for the motion and transportation of people and inanimate objects.

    --
    "I think it would be a good idea" Gandhi, on Western Civilisation
  2. wrong patent number by CausticPuppy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Actually the wheel was patent #2, not #23663589.

    Patent #1, of course, was "a method of rapidly oxidizing combustible materials using concentrated heat and oxygen."

    And the "wheel" came before patent #3, which was "A method and appararatus for creating regular rectangular subdivisions of a yeast byproduct-enhanced grain based matrix."

    --
    -CausticPuppy "Of all the people I know, you're certainly one of them." -Somebody I don't know
    1. Re:wrong patent number by red+floyd · · Score: 5, Funny

      And the "wheel" came before patent #3, which was "A method and appararatus for creating regular rectangular subdivisions of a yeast byproduct-enhanced grain based matrix."

      Wow! That sounds like the neatest thing since sliced bread!

      --
      The only reason we have the rights we have is that people just like us died to gain those rights. -- Cheerio Boy
    2. Re:wrong patent number by clem · · Score: 5, Funny

      So the #1 patent wasn't "business model where sexual favors are exchanged for goods or favors"?

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      Your courageous and selfless spelling corrections have made me a better person.