Siemens patent snafu sees Seagate slip away

[Viv]

An interesting and advanced patent infringement case with with an unexpected twist for the company that owned the patent,

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/06 ... ent_claim/

The relevant paragraph reads thus,

"David Gross, lead counsel of the law firm hired by Seagate, told the court that Siemens did not tell the US Patent and Technology Office of two papers published by one of the IBM inventors of the technology that predated its patent application by two years. Therefore the ideas Siemens was trying to patent didn't constitute new inventions, and the patents were wrongly given to Siemens."

Research is a huge part of the every day work in this field but prior art searching does not stop even after the application is made, if some thing is later found it must be given to the examiners or you could find your self in this sort of situation or worse.

As in the above case the company thought it was in good standing but then found its patents although published were in fact worthless.

Viv