what is the opinion here on the NTP/RIM problem ?

[phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org]

> Two things - something existing as a precedent of a patent does not
> prevent the patent from being filed.

Unless it's been disclosed in the public domain. For example, if you have
described something in the open literature, then someone else can't patent
it. I went through that situation.

I invented a computer system for controlling aerial cameras and wrote an
article on it. My client subsequently advised me that someone in the US
had subsequently filed a patent on in. I advised the USPTO that there was
'prior disclosure' and that was the end of the patent application.

The client was concerned that they would have to pay royalties to the
patent holder in the US, and of course I would have been locked out of
that business.

> Furthermore, a patent can be (and
> routinely is) granted without any implementation at all.  There are
> patents based on technologies which do not yet exist.

My understanding is that this requirement differs between countries. The
US does not require a working model. In fact, people can and have patented
anti-gravity machines (the so-called Dean Device of popular interest in my
youth) in the US. However, I believe that other countries do require that
the device be capable of working (ruling out perpetual motion machines,
for example) and in some countries it is required that the invention be
demonstrated as functional. I'll check this with a colleague who is a
patent attorney.

Peter

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