[Coco] Possible Coco patent?

[wdg3rd at comcast.net]

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Aaron Banerjee <spam_proof at verizon.net>
> I got it from the US Patent Office.  The patent could very well be  
> expired, whether by age or not being maintained.  It is still in the  
> Patent Office records.  For example, Eli Whitney's cotton gin (Patent  
> #X72) is still in their records although it expired centuries ago.  It  
> serves as prior art to prevent someone else from patenting the cotton  
> gin.  (I have 4 cotton gins in my collection).
> 
> In the United States, when a patent expires, it becomes public  
> knowledge.  Since it's public, no one can patent it again and prevent  
> others from making, using, or selling it.  Please remember that the  
> applicant can petition to revive a patent back to life, even if they  
> didn't pay the maintenance fee, so long as the statutory period (I  
> think it's 20 years from filing now) hasn't expired.

I thought when a patent was _granted_ it became public knowledge, not seventeen years later when the product or process is utterly obsolete and not worth licensing.

Last I checked, a patent cannot be renewed, unlike a copyright or a trademark.  Disney hasn't infected things that badly yet even though they have produced a number of patents, most of which have expired, relating to robotics.
--
Ward Griffiths    wdg3rd at comcast.net

"What I know [about the art of the sword] boils down to this:  If you see a guy running at you with a sword, put two rounds in his chest to slow him down, then one into his brain to finish him off".  Aaron Allston, _Sidhe Devil_