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User: NotReallyDrnuk

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  1. Stop worrying! on Legislation To Overhaul US Patent System · · Score: 1

    That website that you are ripping off would be prior art under at least 102(a), and more likely under 102(b).

    You CANNOT take things out of the public domain like that. If you really want to make certain that no one "steals" your idea by patenting it, then broadcast it to as manny people as you can, as publicly as you can. Once an idea is known to the public it becomes, in principle, impossible to patent - unless the patentee can prove that he invented the idea before you published it to the world.

  2. Re:First Post! on Legislation To Overhaul US Patent System · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure where you got this idea of "Now, no more prior art." I can assure you that the concept of prior art will remain. A fundamental tenet of the patent system is that a patentee may not take anything out of the public domain. That is the theory, though it often fails, like so many other ideas when put into practice. But the theory remains and so, then, will the concept of prior art.

    What the first-to-file system will do is align the U.S. with nearly every other nation in the world, which are almost all, if not all, first to file. The people who will suffer most from this are the patent attorneys that specialize in interference practice. Interference practice is unique to the U.S.'s first-to-invent system, as it is a legal proceeding designed to determine who invented first. Of course, the date of invention doesn't matter in a first-to-file system - it's just a race to the PTO. So, once the U.S. switches over to first-to-file like the rest of the world, interference practice is pretty much gone, but for a few quirks like determining who actually invented, rather than when the invention was created.

    But, prior art will remain as a way to defeat a patent or patent application. In fact, it will be easier to find, as the critical date will become the hard and fast filing date, rather than the less clear "invention date" of today under 35 U.S.C. 102(a) (of course, art under 102(b) is based off the filing date, too).