Greetings, Patents do not transcend international border. They need to be applied for in each country separately.
To ease the process of applying for patents in many countries at once Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) was formed. When you file a patent application with WIPO head office under PCT you specify a list "countries of designation" from list of countries members of PCT. Filing like this takes significantly less in paperwork and application fees than filing application in each country separately. Many countries do not grant software patents so it is not likely that IBM applied through PCT since a refusal in one country may cause to patent to be refused in all countries. Hope it helps, Nicolai Tufar ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 7: don't forget to increase your free space map settings