Securing a New Idea for the Public Domain?

piotru asks: "I live in Japan and am implementing a new idea in software. I was told that it deserves patenting, but I intend to make sure that it remains in public domain (preempting anyone else from patenting it). What can I do to make sure that no one else patents my idea? Here are some choices I have come up with: 1) Patent and apply free license; 2) Apply for the patent, then drop it (will be published with time stamp, and more than likely will be costly); or 3) Copyright the implementation (will have a time stamp, but will it remain compatible with the GPL?) Any ideas?" Some of these issues were touched on in an older story, but the basic premise remains a difficult issue. How would you go about releasing an idea to the public domain while making certain that close software couldn't co-opt it out from under you?

Comments

Establish as prior art

[TheRealFoxFire]

All you need to do to make sure the idea isn't ever patented and used against your wishes is to make your idea strong prior art.

To do this, describe your idea in detail (as if you were going to patent it), but instead of spending the large sum of money to patent it, spend a smaller amount getting it officially notarized by a notary public.

In addition, you may want to timestamp a digital copy (Verisign will do this for a small fee), and make it available online.

Publish It Where Patent Attorneys Will Find It

[north.coaster]

Most of the responses have missed the point of the question. The mere act of publishing an idea somewhere will not prevent someone else from patenting it; publishing just gives the original inventor an opportunity to challenge a patent. The poster wants to prevent an offending panent from ever being issued.

The best way to prevent someone else from patenting the idea is to make sure that the invention has been disclosed in a way that any reputable patent attorney will find it during a prior art search. Most patent attorneys will not be searching the archives of the ACM, SlashDot, or Usenet. Instead, they will be searching for existing patents.

So the best way to disclose an invention is to file a patent application, and request that the patent office immediately publish the patent application. Yes, there are some fees involved, but this is the only wat to make sure that patent attornesy can find your disclosure. You can then abandon the application if you don't pay any additional fees.

Go to the US Patent and Trademark Office web site for more specific information about the process, fees, etc.

Re:Copyright is not ''incompatible'' with the GPL

[MrResistor]

This is all excellent advice for someone in the US, but the origional poster is in Japan, and I suspect the laws are different there.

Also, one thing that musicians, who are notoriously poor, used to do is mail themselves a copy and then leave the envelope unopened. IIRC the timestamp in the postmark is admissable in court.