On Aug 31, 12:09*pm, "Geoffrey S. Mendelson"
wrote:
Jeff Liebermann wrote:
http://www.spiritofmaat.com/archive/feb2/vesprman.htm
* "As a former Patent Examiner, I can tell you that the number
* of 'secretized' patents in the vault at the Patent Office
* (Park 5 Bldg.) is closer to 4000 or more. They [applicants]
* never receive a patent number, and the inventor is rarely,
* if ever, compensated by the government for use of the
* invention."

That's an interesting question. Normally an inventor is not compensated for
the use of their invention, as it were, by an employer. In most cases the
employer owns the research it funded and the results (including patents)
of that research.

Quite often the payment for a patent was one dollar. The late father of a
late friend of mine was one of the inventors on 18 patents filed by RCA,
9 of which he was the principal inventor. From what I remember he received
besides his regular salary, an offical payment of $1 for the rights to each
of them, and a nice little plaque for his wall.

In some exceptional cases, usually where the inventor is a noted expert
in the field before employment they negotiated different terms. There were
also independent inventors who filed "invention disclosures" and then
attempted to sell the invention to investors or companies in the field.

This has pretty much disapeared in the US as people now file provisional
patent applications and market those. The problem of this system is that
abandoned provisional patent applications become public domain when they
expire (one year after first publication or filing, whichever is earlier)
and invention disclosures, never being publicised could go on forever.

The other question I have is if a patent is filled and never publicised,
how does one know it exists? If someone else invents the idea (actually very
common) and files a patent are they refused? Are they sued for infringment?

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel *N3OWJ/4X1GM

Wow ! You are way out of date with respect to PTO procedures on so
many things.
The main thing is patents have stopped going on for ever. The primary
change you have
that affects patents today is that patent request are pre printed for
the public before they ever reach an examiner. If I understand
correctly not receiving a patent leaves your request as a free for all
in terms of use. The courts have now put more power in the examiners
hands and are less interested in cases challenging the aproved claims.
For your interest antennas have come to the fore because Chip has sued
many cell phone manufacturers for knowingly using Fractal patents. It
will be interesting to see how the courts handle this in the light of
the many patent changes. You are now seeing more generic drugs over
the counter as drug patents are not being extended for minor changes.
Thus drug companies are using other methods to preserve their
interests via import rules to stop generic drugs coming in from other
Countries covered by the world patent office org of which the U.S. is
part. This does not include Peurto Rico where many U.S. drugs are
manufactured today