[8510] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Multimedia has been patented
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David Farber)
Sun Nov 21 14:14:40 1993
Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1993 14:14:01 -0500
To: tenney@netcom.com (Glenn S. Tenney), com-priv@psi.com
From: farber@central.cis.upenn.edu (David Farber)
At 11:01 11/21/93 -0800, Glenn S. Tenney wrote:
>At 7:30 AM 11/21/93 -0500, Tansin A. Darcos & Company wrote:
>>Perhaps we need to argue that secrecy be removed on patent applications;
>>or that compulsory licensing be introduced on some classes of concepts.
>
>There is a push on for "patent harmonization" -- to make the US system more
>similar to the rest of the world. The most visible aspect of that is the
>change to "first to file" rather than "first to invent". The US and one
>other country (I can't recall which mid-east country, but Iraq comes to
>mind) are the only countries that still use "first to invent".
>
>However, one of the less visible parts of the harmonization effort is to
>also require publication of all patent applications after some time (I've
>heard 18-24 months) even before the patent is issued.
>
>---
>Glenn Tenney
>tenney@netcom.com Amateur radio: AA6ER
>Voice: (415) 574-3420 Fax: (415) 574-0546
I suspect it is time to move this discussion out of com-priv!!
First to file creates an environment where inventions will not be hidden
till a stratigic time thus denying the world access to the ideas. On the
other hand it creates an environment where secrecy is even more important
to protect your ideas till they can be filed. Hard to tell which is better.
