That seems to imply that if unpatented prior art by author A is discovered after author B applies for a patent, and the patent is invalidated, then author A cannot apply for patent. Interesting.
Or, perhaps first-to-file only applies when the reduction to practice is the act of filing a patent, rather than the act of publishing. In other words, it only applies in the special case that two people apply for patents on work that neither of them have published.
That would seem to imply that rather than applying for a patent, one should just publish.
I started to poke through the bill and the patent code to figure this out, but it's beyond me. Maybe I need more than 2 hours of sleep.
That seems to imply that if unpatented prior art by author A is discovered after author B applies for a patent, and the patent is invalidated, then author A cannot apply for patent. Interesting.
Or, perhaps first-to-file only applies when the reduction to practice is the act of filing a patent, rather than the act of publishing. In other words, it only applies in the special case that two people apply for patents on work that neither of them have published.
That would seem to imply that rather than applying for a patent, one should just publish.
I started to poke through the bill and the patent code to figure this out, but it's beyond me. Maybe I need more than 2 hours of sleep.