Re: [Patents] Contempts for the motivation of scientists and engineers

[Roland Orre <orre@nada.kth.se>]

OK, Greg, now I've talken to our patent office here.

On Wed, 2003-05-07 at 15:22, Gregory Aharonian wrote:
> Roland Orre writes:
> >I can't see how an ordinary circuit diagram can be patentable.
> 
Greg:
> Do you know anything about the patent system? Have you ever looked at
> patents?  There are millions of patents around the world claiming
> and depicting circuit diagrams.  A specific circuit is usually 
> described and depicted in the specification to satisfy the best mode
> requirement, and a family of circuits is claimed in the claims (i.e.
> you don't claim the circuit by listing in the claims the actual components
> of the circuit, by rather describe the circuit hierarchically, kind of
> like how you would describe the circuit in a circuit description language
> such as Verilog).
> 
> With such a patent, you can prevent anyone from using a specific circuit,
> and any equivalents covered by the claims, or covered by the doctrine of
> equivalents.

Roland:

Circuit diagrams are not patentable!
Neither for integrated circuits nor for circuit boards.

They have a special design protection for this type of applications.
This works quite similar to copyrights.

They had the same opinion as me, that inventions should be inventions
not just engineering applications, thanks God!

Greg, and others being pro the insane US patent system. Please, do something!

Patents are meaningless if you can patent anything!
You have to differ between innovations and pure engineering development
of applications.

To define new circuits, based on known physical processes, is no innovation,
this is design.

To write a book, is no innovation.

To write new software, is no innovation. A software engineer, as most
engineers, design new software all the time, this is our job, as it'sthe
circuit designer's job to d

etc.

If one of us came up with a new method for programming, e.g. by "mind
reading" (reminding about Minority reports..., which I by the way touched
in the same student paper I wrote 1986) then it would be an innovation
otherwise it's just programming.

Innovation is to create new solutions, by combining knowledge from
different areas in a creative way, good examples here are e.g. the
electron tube and the transistor.