[rollei_list] Re: Patents and Lens Designs
- From: Marc James Small <marcsmall@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:21:11 -0400
At 03:05 PM 10/5/2009, Austin Franklin wrote:
>A patent must be filed within one year of the invention, or it's not valid.
>At least in the US. So I have no idea how it can possibly be that a patent
>could be filed for an item that has been in production for years. Now, the
>patent can be updated/revised, but it had to be filed beforehand.
>
>I think you may want to review patent law here in the US. You will find
>that it is *required* that ALL the inventors be listed on the patent, or
>that can potentially invalidate the patent. Now, what you mean by designer,
>I really don't know...but the guy who game up with the "idea" or "invention"
>being patented MUST be named on the patent.
>
>I have heard a number of people "brag" about how they left their names off
>patents, for nothing but the philanthropic reason of allowing others the
>credit for said patent. I have a hard time believing anyone who says
>something like this. For two reasons. One is their ignorance of how the US
>patent system works, and two, that a patent attorney would allow such a
>thing to happen.
The standard popular work on patent law in the US
is that of de Camp, though that is now rather
elderly. It makes no reference to what you are suggesting.
I can only state that, under your approach, most
Zeiss and Leitz and Leica patents in the US are
invalid. Nice to know this! But I suspect that
you are missing something along the way.
The point is that the German practice is that the
senior designer gets paid, and the junior
designer gets the patent. I have no idea about
these folks you reference who claimed to have
been so junior that they were not mentioned.
And you really have not addressed the main
issue: Bertele had 200 folks working for him to
produce the 1.5/5cm Sonnar in 1931. Who was to
get the sole claim as the patent holder?
Marc
msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
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