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From: Robert Dewar <robert_dewar@my-deja.com>
Subject: Re: Decoding an octet stream
Date: 1999/12/04
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In article <827a95$4ti$1@nntp3.atl.mindspring.net>,
  swhalen@netcom.com wrote:
> The proof requirements for "prior art" and
> "obviousness" is quite hard to do in software, because
> software is generally not a well documented field compared to
> many.

Yes, indeed, prior art is only valid from a legal point of view
if publication requirements are met. It is not good enough to
say "everyone knows this, and point to programs in which it has
been used", your burden is to point to appropriate publication
of the ideas. There have been a number of litigated cases in
which of course there was prior art, and indeed lots and lots
of programmers were aware of the technique and it was widely
used, but no one actually "published" the idea in a legal
sense, until someone came along and patented the idea.

Sound horrible? yes indeed!


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