Sure, depending on that countries trade agreements with the other country. The reason why US patents (as bad as the system is) have more power than european patents (for asian countries, etc) is that any product which infringes a US patent is not allowed to be imported to the US. Furthermore, corporations in the US have lobbied strong and hard for the US gov't to restrict trade with those countries which do not respect our patents and copyrights (such as those that take a US video, copy it and sell it, or the makers of Microchip PIC knock-offs). So if a country has a habit of not recognizing US patents, it may not have as much power in the US as another country that does. And it may not matter to them. It's just another form of control, otherwise known as "Protecting our national interests". Those countries which do not wish to have no reason to avoid granting patents which are already covered by patents in another country. -Adam Werner Soekoe wrote: > > Is that legal? To copy other persons' patents in anothe country? I could > make a fortune! > > Werner > WernerS@fsl.gov.za > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Bond Peter S-petbond1" > To: > Sent: Friday, December 01, 2000 11:55 AM > Subject: Re: [EE]: Coil Imprinted on PCB. Patented > > > > I think the US patent office have a bad habit of granting > > > patents that they have no legal right to, even things that > > > have already been done and are even on sale in other countries. > > > I suppose it is an attempt to bolster US commercial interests, > > > many times when there is a grey area and the patent would not > > > be granted on the UK or here in Australia someone in the US > > > can still patent it. The patent doesn't guarantee legal > > > ownership, it is just a record of a claim of ownership. > > > > The Malaysian Government had a programme a couple of years ago trying to > > encourage Malaysians to go off and register other people's patents > locally - > > the idea was that it didn't matter to them that there was a valid > > US/whatever patent on it, so long as it wasn't already registered there... > > > > Peter > > > > -- > > http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! > > email listserv@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body > > > > -- > > http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! > > email listserv@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body > > > > > > > > > > -- > http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! > email listserv@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body -- http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! email listserv@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body