Re:Researchers: Are we on the cusp of an ‘AI winter’?
by jacques_chester on Saturday January 18, 2020 @12:08PM
(#22085520)
> in less than six months a research group in some country where US patents aren't held in very high regard will have duplicated the work and either sell it as a service or publish it in the scientific literature
US patents can be used to prevent the sale or import of violating foreign products into the US market. It's still the largest market and US patents are still the lynchpin of any patent portfolio.
Simultaneous discovery does occur and primacy is difficult to prove. Most patent offices had first-to-file as the deciding rule, the USPTO adopted first-to-file a few years back to cut down on endless litigation.
And not sure I see the point in patenting such a thing. If it's as good as you say, in less than six months a research group in some country where US patents aren't held in very high regard will have duplicated the work and either sell it as a service or publish it in the scientific literature. They might not even mention knowing about the patent at all! Things have been discovered by multiple people almost simultaneously so many times in the history of science that it's almost a natural law; it'd be impossible to prove foul play.