Re: Hi is this critical??

[Daniel Berlin]

On Tuesday, September 17, 2002, at 08:02  AM, [e-mail] 
wrote:

>> On Tue, 2002-09-17 at 12:09, Russell King wrote:
>>> Then you find out that its been used in the world cup.  You try to
>>> return it to the vendor, but the vendor says its your fault for
>>> dropping the drive.  You protest, but the vendor refuses to listen
>>> because they've got their technology that says so in their product.
>>
>> Then you take them to the small claims court. Its their burden of 
>> proof.
>> Or in the US I imagine you file a class action lawsuit, but before you
>> can file it the features go away because someone else sues them for
>> patent infringement instead ;)
>
> I want to file a patent on using hard disks as footballs.  I claim 
> prior art, because I kicked a, (non-functional), disk across a room in 
> front of the person who owned it, (with their permission), about five 
> years ago, and they would verify that.
>
You made no attempt to ensure their confidentiality, and thus, have 
just admitted you used it publicly more than one year before you've 
filed.
Thus, it is unpatentable.

> So, how do I go about filing a patent request in the EU, Japan, and 
> the U.S.A.?
>

This is tricky, actually, because if the patent issues in the EU or 
Japan before you file in the USA, yer screwed (your EU and Japan 
patents will be prior art, and thus, your US patent will be rejected).

> Incidently unlimited permission is granted to use disks containing 
> only GNU/Linux software as footballs without royalties.  All other 
> usage of disks as footballs will be considered on a per case basis.
>
> Note that this only applies to hard disks, (IDE and SCSI), *NOT* 
> floppy disks, or optical media.
>
> John.

I'm the weird combo of "GCC/GDB hacker and 2nd year law student",
Dan