Comments on: IBM Seeks Patent on Time Management of Meetings

By: Scrappy

Scrappy — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:40:30 +0000

Stan, perhaps you don’t get it… the PTO has issued numerous PATENTS (not singular) on the combined car and windmill thingie (charge while you drive!). It’s now a crowded field:

http://v3.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?adjacent=true&KC=A&date=19990706&NR=5920127A&DB=EPODOC&locale=en_EP&CC=US&FT=D

By: Mark Malek

Mark Malek — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:43:46 +0000

Wow! I wonder if they will run into any Bilski problems with independent Claim 1? Anyone picking up the sarcasm yet?

By: Alan McDonald

Alan McDonald — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:24:14 +0000

How does a rant about a silly publication made by a husband and wife team become fodder for going after large corporations?

By: Stan E. Delo

Stan E. Delo — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:28:50 +0000

This reminds me rather a lot of a *publication* issued by the USPTO that I found while doing a prior art search for wind turbines. It started sorta like:
“While me and my husband were sitting around watching TV one night, a show came on that featured windmills, and after talking it over a bit, we decided that cars could be equipped with windmills, so that they would never need any gasoline to power them…” or something probably even sillier. I couldn’t help but wonder what the rest of the world may be thinking about *publications* of this sort, and perhaps how the mandated 18-month publications have been so badly managed, unless the inventor elects to opt out of publication, by foregoing getting a patent granted anywhere outside of the US. Is this perhaps what is meant by harmonization with the rest of the world? If so, I would opt out of the whole deal, including the First to File part of the current Patent Reform efforts, being so fervently forced upon American innovators by large corporations.

Stan E. Delo

By: Alan McDonald

Alan McDonald — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:03:40 +0000

Lotus Notes, an IBM product, has allowed meetings to be scheduled in 1/4 hour intervals forever.

My Blackberry does the same thing.

Gene is right. Just because someone file a patent application and the application is published by no means assumes that a patent is ever going to issue on those claims.