Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 09:43:04 -0400
From: John Cowan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Ian Lance Taylor wrote:
> One easy and relatively inexpensive way to publish an algorithm with a
> legally verifiable date in the U.S. is to register it with the
> U.S. copyright office. You can send them a program listing, and they
> will basically file it with a timestamp.
Sorry, not enough. For patent purposes, the invention must be
described in openly available literature. Registration with a
government agency doesn't cut it, as nobody (in practice) can obtain
the listing. Publication on Usenet or the Web serves the necessary
purposes: the algorithm must be *available* to persons learned in
the art.
Yes, you do need to do more than merely register it with the copyright
office, and you are correct to point that out. I assumed that that
had already been taken care of in this case since the algorithm in
question is part of a free software package.
However, as far as I know, publication on Usenet or the Web rarely
provides a legally verifiable date. It's not like an appearance in a
published magazine. I suppose you could try subpoenaing the records
of deja.com or google.com.
Ian