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

[Paolo Invernizzi via Digitalmars-d]

On Monday, 1 September 2014 at 19:12:05 UTC, Russel Winder via 
Digitalmars-d wrote:
> On Mon, 2014-09-01 at 09:43 +0000, monarch_dodra via 
> Digitalmars-d
> wrote:
> […]
>> Isn't there some way to "open source" a patent? Or at least, 
>> make some sort of formal publication that this was invented, 
>> and may not be patented by someone else?
>
> No. What you hint at is "prior art" and is a proper defence  
> against (the
> dark arts and) the award of a patent. At least in the UK. USPTO 
>  and
> increasingly EUPO award well formed patents and do not care  
> about prior
> art. They treat this as an issue for the courts not for them. 
> Thus unless you have a lawyer who can be heard, you are cannon 
> fodder to be milked for royalties.

I think that you are a little pessimistic about that, yes, that's 
the trend, but prior art still is relevant today: I'm about to 
reply to an action of the USPTO regarding a patent filed by my 
company in 2004, and the examiner keep objecting every time, 
arguing about new improbable prior-arts documentation every 
time...

>> Just because you don't want to "lock down" your inventions,  
>> doesn't mean they are free to take...
>
> In the "first to file" USA patent system, yes they are.

Unless they are described in a form that let them available to 
the public (not counting the grace period...)

>> Then again, it takes a certain kind of corporate greed to try 
>> to put a patent on things we'd have never thought of as 
>> "inventions".
>
> Aren't corporate and greed synonyms?

Sometimes they are synonyms for "research" also...

>> Did we patent UFCS yet? It's an invention.
>> How about CTFE? That seems like a *huge* invention?
>> What about generic tuples? No language I know of uses these.
>> Static if? Let's patent that too while we're at it.
>
> In the USA, if you have a lawyer, yes do it. You might get away 
>  with it in the EU as well.
> "First to file not first to invent" – by the corporations for 
> the
> corporations. This should tell you everything you need to know 
> about technological innovation in the USA.

Good luck with it! ;-P

--
Paolo Invernizzi