From: uselton@nas.nasa.gov (Samuel P. Uselton) Subject: Re: INDUSTRY: NETSCAPE AND VR PATENT Date: 07 Nov 1996 19:41:27 -0800 Message-ID: Organization: NAS/NASA Ames Research Center Richard L. Miller, legi.com@ix.netcom.com writes: > > Recently we were awarded a patent for a technology that will use data > capture technologies to create a 3D images in near real time of storm > systems across the continent. Last week we sent letters to Netscape What do you mean by 3D images? VRML models? Images derived from 3D data? Whose data? > and Microsoft--just to see what their response would be. Microsoft > hasn't responded and Netscape sent us an unsigned form letter asking > us to submit electronically to their URL, describing the "idea" as > completely as possible--keeping the infor "clear and concise.." > Naturally, we refused. Anyone sending out their "ideas" via email > w/o a confidentiality agreement is risking losing it. . .even if it is > patented in the States you may want a foreign patent. If you have BEEN GRANTED a US patent (not just filed for it), then the information in the patent application is publically available through the US Patent Office. It would be an extremely perverse system that would prohibit infringing on a patent but wouldn't let you see what you had to avoid! > A tip: If you have a great idea, search it, then contact a patent > lawyer or patent agent (they're somewhat less expensive and may be > just as good). And don't let anyone--Netscape, Microsoft or anybody > else have a look at your invention without first getting them to sign > a nondisclosure agreement. > Gratuitous advice, but maybe reasonable until the patent has been awarded. I've seen too many patents awarded (and even more applications) for well known ideas or trivial extensions to them to feel very good about patent lawyers. My worst experience though, was the statement of a patent lawyer in the employ of a company for which I was consulting. After examining an application he had prepared (non-disclosure - I WAS consulting for the same company) I pointed out to him that part of the ideas were already embodied in ten year old (at that time) image processing systems and the rest were mathematically false (less than 1 page to a proof!). He didn't care. He was going to submit it anyway. "It is the patent office's job to find grounds to reject it." His incentives were based, at least in part, on the number of patent applications submitted. Sam Uselton uselton@nas.nasa.gov (Samuel P. Uselton)