Re:What3Words sends legal threat to security researcher for ...
by Tor3 on Monday May 03, 2021 @02:38AM
(#27022287)
That's the theory. In practice it works as was described above - they look for existing patents. Looking for prior work to any degree would presumably make the cost (and time) astronomical (or at least not covering what they're paid), as a general rule. The world is very different from when the patent system was established.
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Re:What3Words sends legal threat to security researcher for ...
by gnicholas on Monday May 03, 2021 @03:32AM
(#27022548)
It's possible that in some fields, the PTO focuses on patents because so many of the innovations are patented.
But this doesn't fit my experience, having worked for well over a decade in Silicon Valley (first as a lawyer, and then as a founder). I could be wrong — this is just the sense I've gotten from talking with patent prosecutors at my old firm, and from talking with my outside counsel about our prosecution strategy.