Re: nomarch-1.2 - Problems with RLE patent 4,586,027

[Nick Phillips <nwp@nz.lemon-computing.com>]

On Wed, May 22, 2002 at 10:07:52AM -0500, Jeff Licquia wrote:

> Well, in that spirit, I can claim prior art to the Marimba patent on
> paid work I did in the 1996-1997 time frame.  I wrote a Windows-based
> update program for a proprietary client application that downloaded
> updates to the application and applied them via a Web server.  It was
> able to grab updated data files as well as changed program files; the
> latter were distributed as bundles.

In order for <stuff someone did> to be considered "prior art", it must be
published in a public forum. So, unfortunately, proprietary systems that
are never described in published papers are not "prior art". The reason
for this is that the patent system was originally designed to encourage
people to share their (otherwise proprietary) inventions. Now of course,
it's just another plank in the shafting that is the patent system.

:(
-- 
Nick Phillips -- nwp@lemon-computing.com
Never look up when dragons fly overhead.


-- 
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-request@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org