[Linux-aus] Dealing with the patent process

[Ronald Skeoch]

On Wed, 2004-08-04 at 08:28, Arjen Lentz wrote:
> Hi Pia,
> 
> On Tue, 2004-08-03 at 15:02, greebo at pipka.org wrote:
> > [...] I'm thinking we get the Open Source 
> > community (including companies of course) involved in the patent process. 
> > Apparently patents have a public period where people can speak up about any 
> > prior art. I suggest we tie into this, and start getting involved with 
> > speaking up about patents. This means they won't necessarily get passed (if 
> > we have good cases) and then after say 6-12 months, we will potentially have 
> > a good paper trail of the issues the FTA has locked us into concerning 
> > patents. Other ideas are much welcome :) 
> 
> I haven't checked for AU specifically, but traditionally the entire
> process is public. A patent is not a secret thing. Everybody can look at
> the whole story, they're just not allowed to implement it without
> licensing. This protection in essense comes into force the moment the
> patent application starts, because the review process of an application
> depends on feedback from experts in the field.
> In practise, this feedback loop is broken in many countries (most
> notably the US) but the process itself has not changed. So the "hooks"
> are there for anyone who is paying attention.
> 
> So I think you are very right. We basically need to track patent
> applications, identify software patents and other relevant issues,
> inventorise them (website) and find the prior art that inevitably
> exists.
> 
> I know that you can set up triggers on the AU trademark site to be
> notified when item with certain keywords are added to the database,
> likely something similar is possible for patent applications. Or just
> having people take a daily peek to identify stuff that needs adding to
> the list. Once identified, handling by a broader group of people becomes
> possible. Particularly if we can categorise.
> 

I believe you are missing the point
we are not talking about australian patents but,
already issued US patents issued through a broken system
being accepted here.
perid of review is over, to overturn same will cost you say $us 500K
(we know that Microsoft and others will defend strongly)


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Ronald SKEOCH  MD. Muli Management Pty Ltd.
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