The Blackboard Patent: Where's Waldo?

Posted Aug 31, 2006 11:53 UTC (Thu) by kleptog (subscriber, #1183) [Link]

In first-to-invent systems you can only claim to have invented it up to a year before you filed it. Prior art still has to be published to count, so the whole discussion only comes up if you had filed for a patent about the same time. Then you'd argue about who was first, it's way to late for that now.

The only difference first-to-file would have made here is that their own product would have invalidated their own patent, given they released the product before filing the patent (I think, the article doesn't say when they released their product using this patented stuff). In first-to-file systems *any* publication, even your own, can be counted as prior art against your patent.