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Novell and Red Hat ask community help in patent caseNovell and Red Hat ask community help in patent casePosted Feb 19, 2009 5:38 UTC (Thu) by madscientist (subscriber, #16861)Parent article: Novell and Red Hat ask community help in patent case
I'm curious about the timeline; if the patents were filed in March of 1987, doesn't that mean they expired no later than March, 2007? How can this patent case be filed in October, 2007? Obviously it can be... I'm just wondering what the real deadlines for filing infringement cases are.
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Novell and Red Hat ask community help in patent case Posted Feb 19, 2009 12:44 UTC (Thu) by nye (guest, #51576) [Link]
I presume you can file for infringement which occurred while the patent was still in effect? Either way, the date the patent was granted is relevant - from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_term :
In the United States, under current patent law, for patents filed on or after June 8, 1995, the term of the patent is 20 years from the earliest claimed filing date. For patents filed prior to June 8, 1995, the term of patent is either 20 years from the earliest claimed filing date or 17 years from the issue date, whichever is longer. Extensions may also be had for various administrative delays. (See: Term of patent in the United States). The exact date of termination may be zealously litigated, especially where daily profits from a patent amount to millions of dollars, e.g., pharmaceuticals.
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