From mva@df.lth.se  Mon Apr  2 10:01:42 2001
From: mva@df.lth.se (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Martin_Wahl=E9n?=)
Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 11:01:42 +0200 (MEST)
Subject: [Patents] novelty and the anti-copycat affect
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.31.0104012313590.3438-100000@querty.oas.a2e.de>
Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.4.32.0104021059500.7987-100000@igloo.df.lth.se>

> > Yes indeed, I know of alot of companies that are afriad to bring demos to
> > exhibitions due to the reasons you state.
>
> which could be a reason to give them some extra legal weapons against
> copycats, but not a reason to give them patents.  Patents can protect only
> a small percentage of what people are afraid of showing at an exhibition,
> and whether the exhibited feature is an invention or not is irrelevant to
> the issue.

Also, this is probably short term protection (limited time). I agree that
this is probably the optimal solution between the need for protection and
the need for freedom.

Regards, Martin



