On 12/10/2011 10:43 AM, Joseph Gwinn wrote:
In ,
"DoN. wrote:

On 2011-12-09, Ed wrote:
On 9 Dec 2011 03:48:21 GMT, "DoN.
wrote:

[ ... ]

Of course -- legally in the Patent world, posting the
information here counts as publication and starts the one year timeout
by which you have to file your application. :-)

Ah, I think you're thinking of something to do with patents or foreign
copyrights. In the US, your work is automatically copyrighted, and you
don't have to file anything. It's been that way since 1978 or
thereabouts.

I *did* say "in the Patent world" above. Once your invention
has been published, you have one year to get the processing of the
patent application running. This from the patent lawers at the lab
where I used to work.

No longer works that way, I suspect. Congress changed US patent law a
few months ago. We are going to the first-to-file system, versus the
original first-to-invent system. (The rest of the World uses
first-to-file already.)

Joe Gwinn

first to file or not, once an idea is published the timer starts running
- a patent can then be invalidated by showing that publication as prior art