Comment by analog31
1 year ago
I'm not a lawyer, but I have 20+ patents. There are some pathological situations where company A launches a product after Company B has applied for a patent, but before the patent is issued. Also, there are rules for prior art, related to the timing of when the prior art became known (through publication, release of a product, etc). It can get even more screwy when an inventor files for a patent in more than one country.
Company A might have known about the application, but was confident that it would not be issued or defensible.
Things like "obviousness" and "prior art" can be hard to judge unless you're a patent lawyer... or a judge.
> Things like "obviousness" and "prior art" can be hard to judge unless you're a patent lawyer... or a judge.
Yea, examiners will grant patents that might have no chance in court. So what tends to matter more is not whether someone has a patent, but whether it was successfully used in court.