

Ask HN: Void future patents by posting ideas publicly? - mgeralz

It seems that many straight-forward ideas nowadays are patentable and patented, sometimes without ever being implemented (patent trolls e.g.). I guess the question is, would they still be patentable if someone, say, blogged about a certain idea or publicly posted the idea in some other way.<p>So. Would describing an idea in a public text constitute prior art and cause a patent that was filed later to be void?<p>Concrete example: if someone would have blogged about and described, say, the flow of a one-click checkout before a certain e-commerce company filed a patent, could someone later have the patent declared void?
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pwg
> Would describing an idea in a public text constitute prior art

For the United States, yes. See 35 USC 102.

> and cause a patent that was filed later to be void?

For the United States, If the patent was claiming what was described, yes. See
35 USC 102.

35 USC 102:
([http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/35/102](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/35/102))

(a) Novelty; Prior Art.— A person shall be entitled to a patent unless— (1)
the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in
public use, on sale, or ___otherwise available to the public___ before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention; or

Note - there are numerous "exceptions" listed in the remainder of 35 USC 102,
so for the full picture, read the whole text.

