Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!boulder!stan!landru From: landru@stan.UUCP (Mike Rosenlof) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: Jonathan (Macintosh Clone for somewhat more than $1000!) Message-ID: <731@baka.stan.UUCP> Date: 4 Apr 89 15:22:06 GMT References: <1989Mar30.192433.20548@cs.rochester.edu> Reply-To: landru@Solbourne.com (Mike Rosenlof) Followup-To: misc.legal Organization: Solbourne Computer Inc., Longmont, Colorado Lines: 33 In article <1989Mar30.192433.20548@cs.rochester.edu> @DOUGHNUT.CS.ROCHESTER.EDU:miller@CS.ROCHESTER.EDU writes: > >Apple may have "pulled off" less than you think. It is relatively easy to >get a patent. You just have to convince the patent office what you are >patenting is "patentable" and a search of existing patents doesn't obviously >cover it. Pure bureaucracy. What is difficult is making it stand up in >court, where you have an intelligent adversary proving it isn't patentable What Mr. Miller says is true, a patent is relatively easy to get, and defending a patent is generally costly. One of the problems he doesn't mention is that the existence of the patent is considered very stong evidence that the is patentable. My company had a seminar given by a lawyer a while back about patents, and I was shocked at some of the things that are patentable. A brokerage company ( I believe ) patented a process of transaction processing that accepted inputs from many sources, acted on the inputs, and repeated the cycle. In effect they had patent polling!! According to the lawyer, software has just in this decade become patentable. Also, the patent examiners, who decide if this software is patentable, are supposed to be high quality software people, the patent office claims a B or B+ level. My personal opinion is that many dubious patents are getting approved. Followups to misc.legal, this isn't really Macintosh news any more. -- Mike Rosenlof Solbourne (303)447-2861 2190 Miller Drive Computer, Inc. stan!landru@boulder.colorado.edu Longmont Colorado landru@stan.uucp 80501 ...hao!boulder!stan!landru