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Again, let's not forget patent-litigation defendants...Again, let's not forget patent-litigation defendants...Posted Sep 18, 2006 19:38 UTC (Mon) by sepreece (subscriber, #19270)In reply to: Again, let's not forget patent-litigation defendants... by JoeBuck Parent article: Prior art won't solve the software patent problem (NewsForge)
Unless I'm missing something (certainly possible), while a prior art database might help applicants write stronger patents, that would be largely because they would also be narrower patents, since the authors would have to claim around the prior art.
That is, when such a patent is infringed, the infringement is clearer and harder to defend, but there are fewer situations that would infringe.
In the most egregious cases, the prior art isn't particularly hidden or obscure, the authors just make their claims regardless. [Perhaps, like wanton infringement, there should be penalties for wanton disregard of obvious prior art]. So, I doubt a prior art database would really lead to a worse situation than we have today.
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