[Patents] Re: [Patents] Re: Patents digest, Vol 1 #66 - 3 msgs

[Bernard Lang Bernard.Lang@inria.fr]

It would be interesting to document this issue, since it states that
the patent system is not really effective in its intended goal and
jutification.

On Fri, Sep 10, 1999 at 08:19:59AM +0000, PILCH Hartmut wrote:
> On Thu, 9 Sep 1999 patents-admin@liberte.aful.org wrote:
> 
> > 
> >   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 ?
> 
> I don't have any documents at hand, but from frequent participation in
> oral proceedings at the EPO (as a Japanese interpreter) and conversations
> with the parties I can confirm that this exactly is the policy they
> usually adopt.
> 
> However, this can be tricky.  If in a patent you don't include enough
> teaching so that your invention can be fully appreciated in a wide enough
> context, it will be vulnerable.  Often it happens that an opponent finds
> some minor fault with a patent and then, because of lack of subclaims and
> lack of disclosure in the description, the patentee has no place to dodge
> and loses everything.
> 
> The patent system has developped some very fine mechanisms and many patent
> attorneys will instinctively reject the arguments of anybody who has not
> fully appreciated these achievements.
> 
> -phm
> 
> 
> 
> 
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