Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > comp.lang.python > #198032

Re: Patents (was Re: google reads your mail)

Cross-posted to 2 groups.

Show all headers | View raw

On Sun, 20 Sep 2026 16:13:55 +1000, Bill Sloman wrote:

> On 20/09/2026 8:03 am, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
>>
>> On Sun, 20 Sep 2026 02:25:11 +1000, Bill Sloman wrote:
>>
>>> On 19/09/2026 8:04 am, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
>>>>
>>>> But you don’t need to prove something works before getting a
>>>> patent.
>>>
>>> It's frequently helpful to have a working example. The
>>> counter-current continuous digestor was quite a tricky design -
>>> which is why Johan Richter could never get any of his versions to
>>> work - and potential users would set set up industrial scale
>>> trials.
>>
>> What exactly stopped him getting the patent on the idea? Because
>> that’s what patents are -- a Government-granted monopoly on an
>> idea.
>
> If you can't reduce it to practice - lawyer-ese for making it work -
> it isn't a valid patent.

That’s not what “reduce to practice” means. Remember, it only applies
to the wording of the patent application. All it means is “make the
description sound plausibly as though it *could* work”.

If “reduce to practice” really meant “prove it works”, then none of
that notorious stream of patents on perpetual-motion machines would
ever have been granted.

>>>> Thomas Edison put together the first working electric light-bulb.
>>>> Did he get the patent on it? No, because that was already taken
>>>> by Joseph Swan.
>>>
>>> Who'd done quite a much development work as Thomas Edison.
>>
>> The patent went to the person who thought of the idea, not the one
>> who made it work.
>
> The US patent went to Thomas Edison who had made his idea work in the
> US, and the UK and European patents were taken out by Joseph Swan who
> had made his version work in the UK.

That self-evidently makes no sense at all. If it works in one place,
it works in both places.

> By setting up a joint company, Edison and Swan avoided a lot of
> expensive litigation

Except that ...

>>> Both inventors patented much the same invention at much the same
>>> time, and found it expedient to set up a joint company to exploit
>>> them.
>>
>> Only after Edison fought unsuccessfully to overturn Swan’s patent,
>> I believe.
>
> That gets it backwards. Swan sued Edison in the British court for
> patent infringement when Edison tried to sell his lamps in the UK
> and won.
>
> Edison started countersueing Swan in the US in 1882, but his legal
> team didn't like their chances, whence the joint company.

Why didn’t his team like their chances? Didn’t Editson already have
his own patent? Why was that considered weaker than Swan’s patent?

Back to comp.lang.python | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

Re: google reads your mail "Johann \"Myrkraverk\" Oskarsson" <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> - 2026-09-16 23:39 +0800
  Re: google reads your mail Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> - 2026-09-17 16:51 +1000
    Re: google reads your mail Lane W <cactus_DAC@yahoo.com> - 2026-09-17 02:43 -0600
      Re: google reads your mail Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> - 2026-09-17 23:34 +1000
        Re: google reads your mail Lane W <cactus_DAC@yahoo.com> - 2026-09-17 08:43 -0600
          Re: google reads your mail Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> - 2026-09-18 15:36 +1000
            Re: Patents (was Re: google reads your mail) Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-09-18 22:04 +0000
              Re: Patents (was Re: google reads your mail) Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> - 2026-09-20 02:25 +1000
                Re: Patents (was Re: google reads your mail) Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-09-19 22:03 +0000
                Re: Patents (was Re: google reads your mail) Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> - 2026-09-20 16:13 +1000
                Re: Patents (was Re: google reads your mail) Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-09-20 08:09 +0000
                Re: Patents (was Re: google reads your mail) Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org> - 2026-09-20 18:25 +1000

csiph-web