[8499] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Multimedia has been patented
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Glenn S. Tenney)
Sun Nov 21 01:46:17 1993
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1993 22:45:57 -0800
To: com-priv@psi.com
From: tenney@netcom.com (Glenn S. Tenney)
At 11:49 PM 11/20/93 -0500, hes@unity.ncsu.edu wrote:
> I think another problem was that the PTO has the practice or habit of
>searching for prior art in the Patent files (and stopping there.) Since
>there was a lot of software progress before software patents started
>being issued, this has apparently led to missing a lot of prior art.
>This seems to be the big problem, rather than the speed of change in the
>field. Again, does anyone know the current situation.
There is a significant technical library at the PTO. They search much more
than just prior patent applications (internationally when possible).
However, if publications are not in their library, then they might not find
it. Their library subscribes to many journals and some companies send
their journals of R&D and disclosure journals to the library.
---
Glenn Tenney
tenney@netcom.com Amateur radio: AA6ER
Voice: (415) 574-3420 Fax: (415) 574-0546
