Shorter patents (5-10 years) would probably kill the drug and biotech industry. It takes them 10 years and 1-2 billion just to get their drugs approved. So the company only makes money during the last few years of the patent as is.
MPEP 706.02(j): To establish a prima facie case of obviousness, three basic criteria must be met. First, there must be some suggestion or motivation, either in the references themselves or in the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art, to modify the reference or to combine teachings. Second, there must be a reasonable expectation of success. Third, the prior art reference (or references when combined) must teach or suggest all the claim limitations. Fourth: if it involves raccoons chewing on things, it's obvious.
This sort of demonstration has been done before. I remember reading an article in Time magazine in the 1960's or 70's that reported on one such earlier experiment. Many men held polished flat "shields" in the sun at the right angle, and confirmed that they could cause charring in a simulated boat target.
I am an old timer, and I do remember an issue when the first IBM-PC with a hard drive (the IBM PC-XT) launched (around 1983). The PC-XT required DOS 2.0. My college department had asked me to purchase a computer, and I had purchased a brand new PC-XT on about the first day it came out. I also purchased a copy of Lotus 1-2-3 (developed for DOS 1.1).
I had a lot of colleagues watching me as I set things up.
Much to my chagrin, I found that Lotus wouldn't run right. I called Lotus tech support. They informed me that they were aware of the issue, and that a patch would out come shortly.
They did patch it quite quickly, so it wasn't a big issue for the company. But when you have just spent thousands of dollars of your department's money, and things aren't running right, you tend to remember!
Online databases also make it much easier to find prior art. These days, patent examiners search worldwide patent databases, and also use Google. (I have filed patents, and have had prior-art cited against me that could only have been found by a Google search). So electronic databases usually make things better. Silly things still get through, of course, but imagine how much crap would get through without these massive patent databases.
Re:amazing programing in 256k, and no serious bugs
on
Apollo 12 at 35
·
· Score: 5, Informative
256K Hah! The Apollo landing module had 2K of RAM and 36K of ROM. Now that's tight!
The overlap between the D&D community and the UCSD pascal community was pretty high. I myself was at UCSD in 1978, playing D&D and taking the UCSD pascal course. All the D&D programmers knew that the game was well suited for computers, and most programmers were into that sort of stuff.
I finally got my own Apple II in 1981, and promptly tried to write a program called "Dial a Dungeon" - a multi user modem text based dungeon. Alas, too big a project for me, and thus never finished.
The patents are continuations of applications originally filed in 1987, so prior art before 1987 is most relevant in this case. Try to find examples from 1986 or earlier.
I was told in physics class that in the early days of experimentation with radioactivity, one early physicist could tell if his samples had arrived in the mail by watching to see if the gold leaf in his electrometer fell when the postman walked in! Poor postman...
I am another Steve (not on the original list). I have a Ph.D. in biochemistry I also endorse evolution. I have two other friends, also named Steve. One has a Ph.D. in Physics, and the other has an MD. They both also endorse evolution.
Seems to be a trend... 3 out of 3 Steves.
Slashdot Mirror
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ImagiNation_Network
Since a few minutes of search can often break a bogus patent, I'd argue that the patent system itself is working OK.
This is why you don't do drugs, kids.
You have convinced me. Now I totally want to see this intermediate movie. In fact, I would like to nominate vux984 to write the first script!
Shorter patents (5-10 years) would probably kill the drug and biotech industry. It takes them 10 years and 1-2 billion just to get their drugs approved. So the company only makes money during the last few years of the patent as is.
MPEP 706.02(j): To establish a prima facie case of obviousness, three basic criteria must be met. First, there must be some suggestion or motivation, either in the references themselves or in the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art, to modify the reference or to combine teachings. Second, there must be a reasonable expectation of success. Third, the prior art reference (or references when combined) must teach or suggest all the claim limitations. Fourth: if it involves raccoons chewing on things, it's obvious.
This is good advice. Pay attention! (I have a biophysics background as well.)
This sort of demonstration has been done before. I remember reading an article in Time magazine in the 1960's or 70's that reported on one such earlier experiment. Many men held polished flat "shields" in the sun at the right angle, and confirmed that they could cause charring in a simulated boat target.
I had a lot of colleagues watching me as I set things up.
Much to my chagrin, I found that Lotus wouldn't run right. I called Lotus tech support. They informed me that they were aware of the issue, and that a patch would out come shortly.
They did patch it quite quickly, so it wasn't a big issue for the company. But when you have just spent thousands of dollars of your department's money, and things aren't running right, you tend to remember!
Hydrogen, with perhaps some type of other gas mixed in to reduce the risk of explosion. This other gas would be the "proprietary" part.
Online databases also make it much easier to find prior art. These days, patent examiners search worldwide patent databases, and also use Google. (I have filed patents, and have had prior-art cited against me that could only have been found by a Google search). So electronic databases usually make things better. Silly things still get through, of course, but imagine how much crap would get through without these massive patent databases.
256K Hah! The Apollo landing module had 2K of RAM and 36K of ROM. Now that's tight!
I finally got my own Apple II in 1981, and promptly tried to write a program called "Dial a Dungeon" - a multi user modem text based dungeon. Alas, too big a project for me, and thus never finished.
The patents are continuations of applications originally filed in 1987, so prior art before 1987 is most relevant in this case. Try to find examples from 1986 or earlier.
Is the wing intact?
I was told in physics class that in the early days of experimentation with radioactivity, one early physicist could tell if his samples had arrived in the mail by watching to see if the gold leaf in his electrometer fell when the postman walked in! Poor postman...
Bad news! Most of the planetary sites are occupied by squatters. For example, some snack food company is sitting on mars.com...
The idea of using robots to communicate to wireless sensors has been around for a while. See, for example, USPTO patent application 20020173877.
I am another Steve (not on the original list). I have a Ph.D. in biochemistry I also endorse evolution. I have two other friends, also named Steve. One has a Ph.D. in Physics, and the other has an MD. They both also endorse evolution. Seems to be a trend... 3 out of 3 Steves.