Patents received by FIRST Teams

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by Peter Matteson

In fact for a patent to be valid you must provide enough information that some one "familiar with the art" would be capable of reproducing it. You are in essence giving the information for public use after a limited period of protection.

Which is why my company is developing a "parallel path" for technology protection. Only ideas of commercial value are patented by the company. Those that have value to our customer ( the military ) are treated as a "trade secret". The process is very similar to our patent process, so everything is documented AND the inventor(s) get paid the same as if they filed the patent, but we don't have to tell the competition what we're up to.

Since the US is a "first to invent" country, we are also covered if somebody "invents" the idea later.

Time to go back to devloping trade secrets

[Carol]

Originally Posted by ChrisH

Since the US is a "first to invent" country, we are also covered if somebody "invents" the idea later.

Be aware that there is a bill in Congress right now that will change the US to a "first to file" system, as the US is the only major country left in the world that is "first to invent". This has been tried several times in the past and never has passed, but I think it is inevitable someday. It will certainly simplify the patent process a lot and eliminate a lot of time and money spent on interferences.

http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2007...eform_a_1.html