Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["Lance A. Brown" <lance AT bearcircle.net>]

Nope.  Prior art disqualifies a patent.  If you file for a patent and
someone else can demonstrate that your idea was implemented by someone
else before you applied for the patent, the patent is void.

IANAPL, so the nuances are beyond me,
   --[Lance]



On Sat, 2002-12-21 at 14:20, Diana Duncan wrote:
> Ummmm...does it matter if they existed before?  Isn't it the first person 
> to 
> apply for the patent the one who gets it?  I certainly may be wrong, I know 
> little of patent law, but I thought you could patent dang near anything, as 
> long as you were the first to apply for the patent.
> 
> On Friday 20 December 2002 01:27 pm, you wrote:
> > What about Zephyr? Isn't that as old as the hills themselves? I was just
> > trying to look up some info on it but I didn't get too much information.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Tom
> >
> > Shea Tisdale wrote:
> > > AOL has been granted a patent for instant messaging.
> > >
> > > http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/biztech/12/19/internet.aol.reut/index.html
> > >
> > > I can't see how the patent office could approve a patent when other
> > > instant messaging systems clearly existed before hand.  Although when 
> > > you
> > > read the patent, it could be describing any number of things, including
> > > email - they write these things so vague sometimes.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ---
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