How to ensure something is Not Patented ? (remains free/open source)

Very easy - just publish the invention and any public forum. Unless a patent
application has been filed before ANY public disclosure, the patent app is
invalid.  I'll leave it up to you to determine what public forum qualifies
and how to get published.

Jim


This question is inspired by the recent post on Whitebox Robotics' patent
application:

Say someone wants to publish a method of doing something or diagrams for
robot parts, etc., and wants to ensure that it does NOT get patented but
instead remains in the open-source community so that everyone has access to
it. Is there a legal mechanism for doing that or do we just slap the GNU
License (or similar) on it and hope for the best ?

Or do we have to go to the trouble of officially registering it (patent,
copyright, etc.) and then just release it to the public domain ?

I'd be interested in any responses to this!
Thanks -
JCD

Very good to know. Thanks !
JCD

To be more precise (IANAL, but this is what I understand), prior public
disclosure would make it easier to litigate against a granted patent,
but the disclosure itself or its discovery doesn't automatically make
the patent invalid. That takes either a court ruling it as invalid, or
the USPTO reviewing the patent. The latter is not common. The USPTO does
not have a convenient way to object to a patent application, unless you
are filing an interference on behalf of your own patent.

As the WB patent is only an application, and an old one, there is no
sure indication it will be granted. But since it's there, you'd have
only to find an example -- hobby robot or not -- that was basically a
desktop PC on wheels (with chassis, removable bays, etc.), and then make
sure this fact is widely discussed so as to discourage the thing Padu
mentioned. Surely someone built one of these and posted pictures on the
Web.

-- Gordon

You could file a provisional patent application for $100 on the idea
and let it expire after one year. It would then be considered prior
art.

Danh


On Feb 20, 1:50 pm, "Pogo"

application:

parts, etc., and wants to ensure that it does NOT get patented but instead
remains in the open-source community so that everyone has access to it. Is there
a legal mechanism for doing that or do we just slap the GNU License (or similar)
on it and hope for the best ?

copyright, etc.) and then just release it to the public domain ?