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Comment by gmuslera | Hacker News Reader

It can't be invalidated by the existence for years of prior art, even as open source?

Sure it can.

That happens when they try to leverage the patent, not when it's granted.

You mean when it gets challenged. Companies leverage their patents all day long without them being challenged for validity.

That's right, now that the patent has been granted. But, in principle, if the patent office found prior art then it shouldn't have been granted in the first place.

Patent laws have changed. It's now first to file, not first to invent.

That's not the way it works. First to file vs. invent has to do with two independent inventors creating something and trying to file. If something has already been invented and is publicly available (patented or not), that's prior art and can invalidate the patent.

This isn't quite what most people think. Prior art still invalidates patents. "First to file" is merely the method now used to deal with two or more parties claiming to have invented a thing in secret who show up at the patent office more or less at the same time. Before, there used to be a trial type thing where the inventors presented lab notebooks and evidence to try to prove who was first. It was lengthy and expensive for all involved.

First to file does not mean first to pluck some heretofore unpatented but well known already used technology from the field and run to the patent office.

That's right, now that the patent has been granted

Has it? I understood it was still only a patent application.

That just underlines how broken the system is.

As a sibling comment points out, patents can still go uncontested. Even worse is when small players end paying fees (because they can't affird lengthy litigation), which ends up supporting the patent.

Yes. And I am also upset, that a patent like this (when that what an other poster posted is complete) can go threw the patent process, because what the claims say is nothing more as an generic emulator that can emulate binary software of a different computer --- something that exists in hundreds or thousands of versions ... there exist at least three only for the C64 computer and this software is around for 20 years or so (Vice, one of those is ~21 years old).

The AIA now allows third parties to submit prior art before a patent is issued. The fine folks at http://www.pubpat.org/ might be able to help.

lol no, what will happen is a $500K lawyer bill for person fighting this patent.

That's what I thought; this is completely stupid. I already had a Game Boy emulator in my Sony Ericsson V630i, over seven years ago.

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