[Patents] consultation questions

[ramon@jl1.quim.ucm.es (Ram'on Garc'ia Fern'andez)]

On Tue, May 08, 2001 at 06:37:58PM +0200, Pierre Breese wrote:
> 
> > (i) The formulation of an idea or of a problem to be solved (the
> > solution being obvious once the problem is clearly stated).
> > 
> This is a way of verifying if the claimed embodiment is obvious or not.
> > Example: the problem of indicating to the driver of a motor vehicle at
> > night the line of the road ahead by using the light from the vehicle
> > itself. As soon as the problem is stated in this form the technical
> > solution, viz. the provision of reflective markings along the road
> > surface, appears simple and obvious. For another example see T 2/83,
> > OJ 6/1984, 265.
> > 
> This says that the TECHNICAL SOLUTION will be patented, not the "IDEA"...
> 

You are right. But from a practical point of view, if one can patent
the only obvious posible way of developing an IDEA it is equivalent in
practice to patenting the IDEA itself.

Ramon