From: witr@rwwa.COM (Robert Withrow)
Subject: Re: Letter asking for help with Apple from the US VP
Reply-To: witr@rwwa.com
Organization: R.W. Withrow Associates
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 18:25:39 GMT

In article <Bv7JI5.6s1@lerami.lerctr.org>, 
  merlin@lerami.lerctr.org (David Hayes) writes:

| Well, Robert, this ability to "easily research patents" would be news to
| the folks at Weslaw and Nexus[...]

I doubt it.  You seem to feel that simply because something is ``easily''
done, no one would be willing to pay someome else to do it for them.  Or perhaps
you fee that because someone gets payed for doing something it must be hard
to do?  Do I really need to bore you with counter-examples to both of these
assertions?  The reason that these services exist is that it is *cost 
effective'' to have them do it instead of highly paid engineers such as
yourself, and the service is likely to do a better job that you would since
they are experienced in the field.

Also, what I said was:  ``Anyone of normal inteligence can easily research
patents to the extent necessary to determine if your invention is the subject
of one or more patents.''  I direct your attention to the part following
``extent''.  The determination of whether invention *infringes* these patents,
or determining ways to circumvent these patents will probably require a trained
professional.  But don't let that lead you to believe that doing the first
part is worthless.  It has the following benefits:

  1) It will save you money in Patent Attorney fees (being a
     sort of sweat equity).

  2) It is a rich source of ideas, both for new inventions and in
     what of your work can be patented.

  3) It will warn you early on if you are likely to have patent problems,
     and may help you to steer your R&D in a safer (more profitable)
     direction, if you do it early on.  

  3) It is damn interresting!

| Since it's so simple, perhaps you'd volunteer to do the patent search
| for us? If you won't volunteer, why not?

I'd be glad to volunteer, in consideration for the appropriate fee (i.e.,
my normal consulting rate, plus expenses).  Time is money... ;-)

Now:

Just to see how hard it should be for an average uninitiated person to discover
*how* to research patents, I went to the Swampscott Public Library (a tiny
library if ever there was one) and looked in the card catalog under ``patent''
and found 4 titles of the ``How to Patent Your Own Invention'' ilk.  Each one
(all 4 were in...I wonder what all of the inventors were doing?  ;-) )had
a section on patent searches, and each one had a usable roadmap on how
this is done.  Step 1.

Additionally, there are more than 25 ``Federal Depository Libraries'' in the
US that, among other things, keep copies of patents available for public
inspection (at no cost).  Many more librarys receive either the `Gazette'
or the `Index of Patents'.  The depository libraries have staff that can
assist you in researching patents.  Step 2.

Using Step 1 and Step 2 I restate my assertion that any person of reasonable
intelligence can do an adequate job of ``determining if their invention is
the subject of a [current] patent'', at the cost of not much more than their
time.

So... I challenge *you* David:  Give it a try!  And let us know how you
fared...

-- 
 Robert Withrow, Tel: +1 617 598 4480, Fax: +1 617 598 4430, Net: witr@rwwa.COM
 R.W. Withrow Associates, 21 Railroad Ave, Swampscott MA 01907-1821 USA
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk,misc.int-property,alt.suit.att-bsdi,comp.unix.bsd