At 04:18 PM 12/03/97 +0000, you wrote:
>Maybe Bob should patent his clock before someone else starts
>marketing it ...

Sadly - that won't stop anyone from making a profit from it AND sharing a
proportion of that profit with Bob.

Patents are great for publishing and great for setting a date of note-
worthiness - but cost a great deal to defend - often far more than any
business plan can identify as 'unencumbered returns from commercialisation'
and I think we can guess that real returns are usually less than those
identified in a 'optimistic' business plan.

In Australia we have the Federal Police to handle copyright infringements,
but a patent infringement does not result in any (automatic) response from
governments...

Even with Oz Federal Police we have to raise a writ - but its cheaper by
far than issuing action over possible patent infringement. So I tend to
lean towards copyright as a mechanism coupled with trade-secrets - but, I
think we already had several threads about that and PIC code copying already.

Rgds

Mike

Some say there is no magic but, all things begin with thought then it becomes
academic, then some poor slob works out a practical way to implement all that
theory, this is called Engineering - for most people another form of magic.
                                                                       Massen