From moeller@scireview.de  Thu Dec 13 02:10:02 2001
From: moeller@scireview.de (Erik Moeller)
Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 03:10:02 +0100
Subject: [Patents] Very basic patent question
Message-ID: <3C181C0A.27794.26952C7@localhost>

Hi,

if a company holds a patent on an essential technology, and another company wants to be active in the same field, can the other 
company sue the patent-holder to get the patent declared invalid, before starting to work on an actual product, or does it have 
to be sued by the patent-holding company to get the patent contested in court?

Thanks,

Erik Moeller
-- 
Scientific Reviewer, Freelancer, Humanist -- Berlin/Germany
Phone: +49-30-45491008 - Web: <http://www.humanist.de/erik>
The Origins of Peace and Violence: <http://www.violence.de>

"If we don't improve our ability to deal collectively with complex
things, as the problems grow more urgent, we're in trouble."
 - Douglas Engelbart



