Dexxies--Apply Here

[ksmith]

A cool link from Tom Hise on SFFNet:

"Japan's Hitachi says it has developed the world's smallest
and thinnest microchip, that can be embedded in paper to
track down parcels or prove the authenticity of a document."

Tom said that I should've gotten a patent. I don't know if you can patent a concept, but if someone invents a brain-in-a-box to read the chips...

Comments

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Totally nifty! Definitely time to patent your ideas and start collecting a new kind of royalties.

[kalligraphy.livejournal.com]

Not sure if you can patent an idea alone. It used to be that patents were issued based on first to concieve, which means that a properly documented invention process could cause a patent to be overturned, but that changed back in the 90's when the US followed the rest of the world when it switched over to the first to file method. However, there is something in patent law (and I am not a lawyer) which makes it difficult to patent something that can be construed as common knowledge or conceived by a person other than the inventor. Which means that something that is placed into print, could trump a patent. The idea being that the inventor didn't think of it, he copied someone else's idea. Patent law can get a bit squishy, and I doubt anyone challenged the patent for water beds or waldos just becuase Heinlein thought of them first. In fact, waldos are even named AFTER the book Heinlein wrote about them in.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I have a feeling that if Hitachi is publicizing the product now, they nailed down the patents before CODE came out in 1999. But, I could be wrong.

Hey, what are SF writers for but to serve as patent-smashers for the technology industries?

[merlinpole.livejournal.com]

ISTR that some SF writers have patented things that they've put in their fiction. Wil McCarthy I think is one of them, with "programmable matter."

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Why do I think I'll someday be sorry that I didn't look into this sooner...