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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?
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.