[MURG] Uploading IP (intellectual property)

[Joseph J. Strout]

At 11:50 AM -0500 3/1/04, Randal A. Koene wrote:

>Yes, publishing is of course a way to get the research into the public
>domain. My (naive) suggestion was more along the following lines: A
>researcher publishes useful information for mind uploading. Then a company
>researcher makes a small addition to that and patents the whole thing. If
>the original research had been patented, could the original researcher
>take steps against its inclusion in a patent that seeks to counter
>openness?

Well, IANAL but I did recently go through a patent process, and my 
understanding is this: they can't patent the whole thing -- they can 
only patent the part that is novel.  The original research is in the 
public domain and anybody could use that, in exactly the same way 
that if you'd patented the original research, you could control who 
used that even if somebody else managed to patent some addition to it.

In other words, prior art is prior art, regardless of whether the 
prior art is patented.  Having a patent on the original research 
makes in no harder or easier for somebody to patent some related work 
or extension.

But again, IANAL so take it with a grain of salt.

Best,
- Joe

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