Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, Meyer Wolfsheim
had to walk into mine and say:
>
> Since the patent went into effect Midnight, Sept. 20, 1983, EDT, logic
> would dictate that at the stroke of midnight on Sept 20, 2000, you would
> be able to post such things.
Midnight is ambiguous; is it the beginning of the first second of the
day, or the end of the last second of the day? The insurance industry
dates everything at 12:01 AM for this exact reason.
However, that's irrelevant; the patent office has dealt with the issue.
Having researched this in the past for a different patent, I can answer:
Patents, like copyright, are *inclusive*; they expire at the *end* of
the last day of validity. The time that is important is the clock in the
USPTO in Washington DC, i.e. the timezone to use is Eastern Time
(standard or daylight, depending).
--
Harald Koch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"It takes a child to raze a village."
-Michael T. Fry
