[OT] Microsoft filled patent applications for scoped and immutable types

[Brad Roberts via Digitalmars-d]

On 8/27/2014 12:11 AM, via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> On Tuesday, 26 August 2014 at 21:30:40 UTC, Brad Anderson wrote:
>> On Tuesday, 26 August 2014 at 21:26:36 UTC, H. S. Teoh via
>> Digitalmars-d wrote:
>>> D has had immutable for years! Surely that counts as prior art?? Does
>>> the patent office accept prior art submissions?
>>>
>>>
>>> T
>>
>> They do.
>>
>> http://meta.patents.stackexchange.com/a/107
>
> I don't like that. Even if we want to break this patent with prior art,
> we need to publish one for ourselves. This system sucks, we can't choose
> not to be part of it if we want to be protected. And do we have the
> money to publish patents anyway?
>
> I feel pretty bad about this. What are the thoughts of Andrei and Walter
> on this stuff?

In the US, filing a patent app requires about $10k and a good lawyer. 
It's not in the realm of most small entities to do.  It's a seriously 
bad use of $10k.  The best defense is prior art, and there's a ton of 
it.  I say this having my name on a handful of applications and one 
granted patent.