I am curious to how they are going to claim this against SOE for EQ when EQ came out BEFORE they bought the patent I am no patent lawyer but if the release dates of EQ and UO pre-date even the patent date does it not nullify the suit?
I just did some research the patents they are doing this under is first one was dated oct 1998 and other was may 2001. EQ was released in 1999 UO in 1998 Meridian 59 was 1996 and if I understand things (like I said I am not a patent lawyer or expert) but I did some research and here is what I have found.
"In the United States, a patent may still be able to be applied for under these facts. An inventor has up to 1 year after the first public disclosure, sale, or offer for sale of the invention to file a patent application (assuming the inventor(s) can show they conceived of the invention before that first disclosure). If an application is not on file after a year, the inventors are barred from obtaining a patent in the United States. Most other countries require absolute novelty, meaning a patent application must be on file before the first public disclosure of the invention, so assuming no application was on file when the advertisement was made, foreign patents are almost certainly not possible.
Implicit in the question is whether someone can "take" the idea and patent it. In the United States, only the inventors of a patentable idea may apply for a patent on the idea. So, if someone were to have just happened upon the trade show and saw the product, that person would not be able to patent it themselves, as they did not actually make the invention. As a practical matter, however, it is difficult for the USPTO to discover that kind of behavior. Even assuming a patent issued under those circumstances, it would be invalid based on the earlier disclosure and naming incorrect inventors."
Comments
I am curious to how they are going to claim this against SOE for EQ when EQ came out BEFORE they bought the patent I am no patent lawyer but if the release dates of EQ and UO pre-date even the patent date does it not nullify the suit?
I just did some research the patents they are doing this under is first one was dated oct 1998 and other was may 2001. EQ was released in 1999 UO in 1998 Meridian 59 was 1996 and if I understand things (like I said I am not a patent lawyer or expert) but I did some research and here is what I have found.
"In the United States, a patent may still be able to be applied for under these facts. An inventor has up to 1 year after the first public disclosure, sale, or offer for sale of the invention to file a patent application (assuming the inventor(s) can show they conceived of the invention before that first disclosure). If an application is not on file after a year, the inventors are barred from obtaining a patent in the United States. Most other countries require absolute novelty, meaning a patent application must be on file before the first public disclosure of the invention, so assuming no application was on file when the advertisement was made, foreign patents are almost certainly not possible.
Implicit in the question is whether someone can "take" the idea and patent it. In the United States, only the inventors of a patentable idea may apply for a patent on the idea. So, if someone were to have just happened upon the trade show and saw the product, that person would not be able to patent it themselves, as they did not actually make the invention. As a practical matter, however, it is difficult for the USPTO to discover that kind of behavior. Even assuming a patent issued under those circumstances, it would be invalid based on the earlier disclosure and naming incorrect inventors."
http://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/can-someone-patent-something-that-has-already-been-86450.html
So I would say fight it even though MS settled does not mean it is a valid lawsuit or patent.
Software patents are bad for innovation. Copyright protection is more than sufficient.
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Delanor
Yeah... taking on all the biggest names in the industry at once... that's smart.