[Coco] Possible Coco patent?

[Aaron Banerjee]

I stand corrected.  It is public the moment it is issued.  What I  
meant to say was after it expires, it becomes fair game for anyone to  
make, use, or sell without being sued for patent infringement.

There's a little "gotcha" with patents that prematurely expired  
because the maintenance fees weren't paid.  So long as their statutory  
period (was 17 years from issue date when I was at the Office -- might  
be 20 from date of filing now) has not expired, they can basically pay  
the maintenance fee and bring it back to life.  What people were doing  
is not worrying about the maintenance fee and letting the patent  
expire.  If someone else started to produce it, and it was worth going  
after them, then they would pay the fee and let the lawsuits begin...

                - Aaron



On Sep 21, 2008, at 4:05 PM, wdg3rd at comcast.net wrote:

>
> 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_
>
>
> --
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