At a company I used to work for, I swear to God that the patent statement
basically said that every thought that I had, expressed or otherwise was the
property of the company. I work in the electronics industry, but lets say
one day we were tossing back a few and I came up with an idea of let say
"Feed mayonnaise to Tuna fish before you kill them, this way it is pre-made
when you can them." I use this as a ridiculous example however, this idea,
although not related to electronics is legally the property of that company.
Although I worked for them for 12 years, I kept my mouth absolutely shut and
the first thing I did after I quit was to write down all my ideas and mail
them to myself. This way before starting another job, I had a legal basis
of time establishment as to when I came up with the idea. Now if one of the
ideas gets developed, my new company won't get jack squat.
Patents work, unfortunately, private industry pays MUCH better than
government work, so now we have a bunch of non technical numb nuts working
in the patent office. Hey! I am going to patent Oxygen. I hope you are
all ready to pay my hefty licensing fees ;->
Patents were NEVER meant to allow the idiots to patent the things that they
ended up being able to patent. Patenting naturally occurring genetic
material is criminal. I mean lets say I got some of that stuff floating
around in me. What now? I got to pay for what naturally occurred? I think
we need a nice new virus that kills lawyers and anybody whose IQ is below
that of a telephone pole (politicians). I'd pay to license that one...
Mark Ross
-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Ellis [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2000 9:32 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [TN] patents
Marc
Your bitterness is a little misplaced, IMHO. As a general rule, unless your
employment
contract specifically states otherwise, the intellectual property of any
invention you
make while in the employ of a company becomes automatically the employer's,
even when
the invention is made outside of the place of work and in your own time.
There are
megatonnes of jurisprudence in many countries accepting this principle. Even
if you
were a zillionnaire you would not be able to persuade the courts otherwise.
If you wish
a legal right to your inventions, you must specify this in your employment
contract,
but you may not get the job :-(
Brian
Marc Auger wrote:
> Hello TechNetter,
>
> I personnaly dislike Patents, the companies I've worked for over the years
> have stolen dozens of my ideas, I've had personnal claims copied to
> oblivion, and since I don't have the money (Cause the company don't pay me
> enough on the cash-cows they took from me). Worse part is I can't do sweet
> f*** all about it.
>
> There is NO justice in the US or anywhere else in this world unless you
> already have the big bucks
>
> Also take the case of non-gasoline engines, you bet your boots that the
> petroleum companies will buy out any product that is a potential treat to
> their little environmentally unfriendly empire.
>
> Patents suck.... Big time!
>
> MA
>
> On Sat, 29 Jan 2000 12:47:23 -0000, Michael Fenner wrote:
>
> > Carry on believing it, the essence of a patent is that it proves
> novelty/invention and
> > subject artefact is not based on prior art/common knowledge. The enemy
> of this is
> > premature disclosure. Having said that, big money is changing this. In
> the US in
> > particular companies now appear to be to be able to patent discoveries,
> (I refer to
> > genetics), but that's a long way from electronic assemblies.
> >
> > Incidentally my experience of protecting IP was that it was better to
> copyright it.
> > Certainly in program codes on projects we worked on, connecting our
> devices (or any
> > product using our pirated code) to a PC com port produced an on screen
> message stating
> > stolen from "our name" also details of our legal representative.....
> >
> > Mike Fenner
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: joyce <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: 28 January 2000 20:42
> > Subject: Re: [TN] patents
> >
> >
> > > What is going on in the world? I always believed that "common
> knowledge" is
> > > not patentable. Anything that were published prior to patent
> (application
> > > file date) are not patentable. That is why some of the industry
guide
> their
> > > dearest IP as "Trade Secret", the boardest possible claim as
"patent",
> and
> > > fight to publish papers if it is potentially might hurt the chance to
> get
> > > some patent out (avoid it to become "common knowledge")...Is that all
> > > changed lately?
> > > jk
> > > At 07:39 AM 1/28/00 -0800, you wrote:
> > > >No, patents are really quit useful. How else could you protect your
> > > >investment of time and effort in inventing a new mousetrap.
> > > >
> > > >But a long time ago I was taught a few easy rules to determine
whether
> or
> > > >not an invention was worthy of a patent:
> > > > Is there no prior art?
> > > > Is the invention not obvious to someone skilled in the art?
> > > > Is the invention being reduced to reality? (are you
"building
> a working
> > > >one"; due diligence)
> > > >And if I could answer those questions in the positive it would be
time
> to go
> > > >for it.
> > > >
> > > >The most used circumvention is of the third one and these days due
> diligence
> > > >seems to stretch into many years and now the word used when one of
> those
> > > >patents pops up after everyone has become accustomed to using the
> > > >unannounced patent is "submarine patent". (Is machine-vision one of
> those?)
> > > >
> > > >Ahne.
> > > >-----Original Message-----
> > > >From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ryan Grant
> > > >Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2000 15:00 PM
> > > >To: [log in to unmask]
> > > >Subject: [TN] patents
> > > >
> > > >I hear you loud and clear Paul. I'm not a fan of patents in
general.
> > > >ESPECIALLY when a tangible product is not made before the patent.
For
> > > >example, the guy that has a patent on the vision systems used on
pick
> and
> > > >place machines.
> > > >
> > > >At the risk of being flamed, I think most patents get in the way of
> > > >technological development. Very few individuals hold patents; the
> company
> > > >they work for hold the patent. So in a sense, an individuals idea
is
> being
> > > >stolen by the company they work for anyway since that individual
can't
> take
> > > >their patented idea to the next company they work
> > ... snip
> >
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