Hans, That is true only if you go through a court case. Once the patent has been granted by the PTO, the patent is final until formally invalidated. The holder has the upper hand and can do nasty things like seek an injunction against shipment of infringing products pending resolution of a case. It is almost always better to negotiate a resolution up front, which if needed can become part of the litigation record if it goes that far. What I would suggest here is to seek a license for $1. by presenting the prior art to Sanmina who acquired the Zycon patents: 5800575, 5708569, 5603847, 5466892, 5347258, 5261153, 5161086 5155655, 5144742, 5079069, 5064583 Regards, Steve. At 12:20 PM 11/27/2001 -0800, you wrote: >Simply, one can invalidate a patent if you can >demonstrate that "prior art" existed. The only problem >with that is that the burden of proof falls on you. >Have your legal team examine the patent and the prior >art and then with their approval you can "infringe". >If the patent holder sues, you can reply with the >prior art. Then it becomes a problem for the patent >holder to prove the diferences from teh prior art. >This happens all the time. >Hans Mellberg > >__________________________________________________ >Do You Yahoo!? >Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month. >http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1 >------------------------------------------------------------------ >To unsubscribe from si-list: >si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field > >or to administer your membership from a web page, go to: >//www.freelists.org/webpage/si-list > >For help: >si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'help' in the Subject field > >List archives are viewable at: > //www.freelists.org/archives/si-list >or at our remote archives: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/si-list/messages >Old (prior to June 6, 2001) list archives are viewable at: > http://www.qsl.net/wb6tpu > ------------------------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from si-list: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field or to administer your membership from a web page, go to: //www.freelists.org/webpage/si-list For help: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'help' in the Subject field List archives are viewable at: //www.freelists.org/archives/si-list or at our remote archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/si-list/messages Old (prior to June 6, 2001) list archives are viewable at: http://www.qsl.net/wb6tpu