Re: copyright expiration as a spur to creativity

Timothy Arnold-Moore <tja[_at_]mds.rmit.edu.au> wrote:
>
> This is true until the work is published. Patent very clearly gives a
> monopoly to exploit your creation, but only in return for you publishing
> the details.

An excellent point and one used some years ago by the UK's Patent Office in its publicity.

As I recall an Australian America's Cup challenge had a new fancy design of keel which the other competitors wished to know about. They tried to view it when the boat was out of the water they sent divers in when it was afloat but always failed (according to the Newspapers of the time). Yet the details of the design were freely available in a published patent, but nobody thought to look!

Am I right to recall that not all Patent Offices publish applications equally quickly and that the UK publishes earlier than most?

Mic L. Porter, Senior Lecturer/Consulting Ergonomist University of Northumbria at Newcastle
Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE1 8ST (United Kingdom) (+44)/(0)191 227 3155 (voice) (+44)/(0)191 227 4655 (fax) <mic.porter[_at_]unn.ac.uk> Received on Thu Sep 10 1998 - 09:48:09 GMT