
File First, Invent Later? - wrrice
http://www.hoover.org/publications/defining-ideas/article/82096
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tptacek
Perhaps a slightly misleading headline. You can't file a patent without
inventing something; to be enforceable, a patent must document a "best known
mode" of operation sufficient to enable someone reasonably skilled in the
disciplines relevant to the patent to actually build the thing.

So this article does not in fact suggest that you can file "hover jellybeans"
just because the thought occurred to you to do so. Rather, it adjusts a
somewhat arcane dispute resolution system that many of you didn't even realize
existed so that the patent system in fact works the same way you thought it
did, which is that the first person to file a document describing and enabling
an invention unencumbered by prior art wins the patent.

Presaging the "OMG WTF PATENT LOL" stuff, let me say: _I don't care_. This
story doesn't have anything to do with whether software patents are
reasonable. Tell me they're evil and I'll agree with you.

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cachemoney
If two people independently invent something at about the same time, does that
mean it's obvious to someone skilled in the art?

In those scenarios, I'd like to see both patents thrown out.

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tzs
> If two people independently invent something at about the same time, does
> that mean it's obvious to someone skilled in the art?

No. If it was you would have dozens or hundreds of simultaneous inventors, not
just two.

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billswift
If it was actually obvious, most people wouldn't pay the fees to file. Just
the rip-off artists hoping for a big score.

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noonespecial
Invent!? Who said anything about inventing? It says _file_. Inventing is what
the suckers who have to pay me do.

