[Patents] Cheating on the patent system ???

[Bernard Lang Bernard.Lang@inria.fr]

Just an idea that came to me.

The purpose of patents is to make technical information freely
available, hence also to competitors, in exchange for a monopoly that
blocks competition.
  But of course, competitors may be smart, and given the knowledge of
the patent, he may be able to devise a new system, not covered by the
patent, and which may compete with it.

  Hence, the best course for a company is to have its cake, and eat it
too (le beurre et l'argent du beurre) : that is get the monopoly, and
keep the information. To be honest, the patent system is already very
helpful since no sane engineer wants to learn from a patent document,
but that is not my point.
  I guess, to get the monopoly and keep secrecy, the best is to get a
patent on a key point, that should block competition as much as
possible, while keeping secret most of the rest so that the
competition gets very little useful information from the patent.

  Have significant examples of such behavior been documented ?
Is it frequent ?

Cordialement
   Bernard

-- 
Bernard.Lang@inria.fr             ,_  /\o    \o/    Tel  +33 (1) 3963 5644
http://pauillac.inria.fr/~lang/  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  Fax  +33 ;(1) 3963 5469
            INRIA / B.P. 105 / 78153 Le Chesnay CEDEX / France
         Je n'exprime que mon opinion - I express only my opinion
                 CAGED BEHIND WINDOWS or FREE WITH LINUX