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From: jeh@dcs.simpact.com
Newsgroups: sci.electronics,misc.legal
Subject: Re: Patents, How to get them?:-)
Message-ID: <1527.26b95e5d@dcs.simpact.com>
Date: 3 Aug 90 18:22:05 GMT
References: <297@alix.UUCP> <7620@amelia.nas.nasa.gov> <1990Aug2.122811.29219@mlb.semi.harris.com> <12134@hydra.gatech.EDU>
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Organization: Simpact Associates, San Diego CA
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X-Local-Date: 3 Aug 90 11:22:05 PDT

In article <12134@hydra.gatech.EDU>, ce1zzes@prism.gatech.EDU (Eric Sheppard)
 writes:
> With the talk of the mega-lawsuits nowadays, having a successful patent seems
> impossible unless you have tons of money and an army of weasels in pin-striped
> suits to defend it.  How can the small-time entrepeneur hope to achieve success
> if some enormous conglomerate sics its lawyer-force on him and takes his
> marvelous invention away? 
> 
> It's depressing to think about.

This is pretty much the opinion of Don Lancaster (of _TTL Cookbook_, etc., 
fame).  He says that not one patent in ten will survive an aggressive search
for prior art; that in a quick-moving field like electronics or computers, 
the patent process is so slow compared to the rate of progress in the field
that by the time a patent is granted the state of the art will have passed 
it by; that most big corporations will gladly pay their legal department 
$100K to bust your patent before they'll pay you $10K in royalties; that, 
all things considered, not one patent in ten will ever net any profits for 
its holder or assignees.  

He's written a book, _The Incredible Secret Money Machine_, about how to turn
your avocation into a successful one-person business.  Among many other things,
he covers the above points and tells you how to make money from your ideas
withOUT patenting them.  I higly recommend this book to anyone who is 
considering becoming a small-time entrepreneur.  The publisher is Howard Sams,
Inc.  

	--- Jamie Hanrahan, Simpact Associates, San Diego CA
Internet:  jeh@dcs.simpact.com, or if that fails, jeh@crash.cts.com
Uucp:  ...{crash,scubed,decwrl}!simpact!jeh