Re: [boost] Interval Trees & ICL

Subject: Re: [boost] Interval Trees & ICL
From: Hal Finkel (half_at_[hidden])
Date: 2010-12-20 16:21:17

On Mon, 2010-12-20 at 17:24 +0100, Thomas Klimpel wrote:
> Joachim Faulhaber wrote:
> > Can something that is published by Tropf 1981 be patented by Tropf 2004?
> 
> IANAL
> 
> How about this scenario (purely hypothetical):
> Tropf applied for a patent in 1980.
> The patent application took longer than expected, and Tropf published something more or less closely related in 1981.
> The patent was finally granted in 2004.
> 

If we're talking about patent number 7321890 (which was referenced on
the aforementioned Wikipedia page), Google says:

Filing date: Feb 18, 2004
Issue date: Jan 22, 2008
Application number: 10/781,488

The patent has only 6 claims, you'd probably have to read them and the
earlier paper to figure out what the differences are between the earlier
paper and the later patent. Or, you could write Tropf and ask him ;)

 -Hal

> So it looks to me as if under these circumstances, the patent would be valid. The publication from 1981 would not qualify as prior art, not because it is written by the same author, but because it was published later. But I have to admit that it occurs unlikely to me that it took 20 years until a patent was granted.
> 
> Regards,
> Thomas
> _______________________________________________
> Unsubscribe & other changes: http://lists.boost.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/boost