On Sunday, February 24, 2013 12:29:04 AM UTC-5, Salmon Egg wrote:   
      
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   > The only real problem to worry about is the legal expense one might get    
   >    
   > into trying to fight such patents. Our Patent Office is now a profit    
   >    
   > center for our Government. Aside from application fees, there are    
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   > maintenance fees. Many old inventions have new patents. The one that    
   >    
   > gets to me is the Schmucker patent going after some company producing    
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   > Cornish pasties in violation of the Schmucker patent on crustless    
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   > sandwiches.   
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   > From my limited legal knowledge, a patent has to reveal to someone    
   >    
   > knowledgeable in the art how do make the invention. Inventions without    
   >    
   > implementation have a difficult time. I do remember, as other readers    
   >    
   > here might, a todo between Charles Townes and Gordon Gould. My personal    
   >    
   > knowledge is of a patent for BDN used for Q-switching neodymium lasers.    
   >    
   > A brief publication was enough for some good chemists to duplicate the    
   >    
   > dye. The patent,however, had much greater detail.   
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   > There also is no doubt that lawyering is extracting nuisance fees for    
   >    
   > so-called intellectual property. The song "Happy Birthday"  comes to    
   >    
   > mind. I believe the words are now in the Public domain, but the music    
   >    
   > copy rights still have a few years to go. I would not be surprised if    
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   > Congress decides to extend those rights if enough campaign money is    
   >    
   > spread around.   
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   >    
   >    
   > --    
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   >    
   > Sam   
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   >    
   > Conservatives are against Darwinism but for natural selection.   
   >    
   > Liberals are for Darwinism but totally against any selection.   
      
   Unfortuntely, the legal expense fighting such patent infringement suits can be   
   devestating to a small company. Skywise posted a link describing the x-plane   
   lawsuit, which the x-plane owner estimated would cost $1.5 million to fight   
   the lawsuit. The USPTO    
   should not be enabling patent trolls by awarding bogus patents imo. Also, from   
   my experience on financial mesage boards I see that many clueless investors   
   are drawn into shaky stocks based on these questionable patents. It seems the   
   USPTO has an    
   obligation to investors as well not to unfairly give credibility to such troll   
   companies. IMO.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)