Percy Picacity wrote in
:

But I *don't* think they have changed the rule that any other
published prior art prevents a patent application being granted.


Looks that way to me too, after trying to check it out briefly. Published
work is prior art, but private dated work is presumably not 'prior art' then,
so what is valid to establish a date for copyright (copies sent recorded
delivery to self or a solicitor's (lawyer's) office) is not good enough for a
patent. So I guess the question (one I keep asking in various ways) is how
public is public?

I'm in the UK, by the way, but I think the key to understanding this must
include a look at how the US does things too.