{OT} Re: 30 Years Of Netscape

On 11/5/24 16:51, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:

On Tue, 5 Nov 2024 14:32:21 -0500, bad sector wrote:
 

On 11/4/24 14:35, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>

One important thing Netscape did before going completely defunct was to
open-source the browser.

>
THAT was a class act! I did something vaguely similar when I took out a
provisional patent and then let it lapse for the express purpose of thus
hard-wiring the idea into public domain to prevent anyone from ever
being able to take out a patent on the same idea.

 Patents in the public interest ... now THAT I can applaud!

yeah, I was rather proud of it, seems like in another life now

But then, simply publishing the idea would, in theory, count as “prior
art”, wouldn’t it? Though in practice it is very hard to get patents
invalidated anyway, at least in the US system (also *cough* East Texas
*cough*).

Ideally 'prior art' would block another applicant, but yes, once granted overturning would be a task and a half, especially with thin records.