Comment Re:What constitues prior art? (Score 2, Informative) 44
US Patent law traditionally offers the patent only to the first inventor -- any recorded prior art invalidates it. There are some details about the two distinct points in time the law recognizes -- the moment when you conceived of it, and the moment when you reduced it to practice, i.e., made a prototype or proof of concept. Reduction to practice before the other guy may decide the case, particularly as in many bogus patents the "inventor" never reduced it to practice.
The more bureaucratically oriented EUian law offers it to the first filer, but that is against the US Constitution because our Congress only has the authority to offer patents to inventors, not "first to filers." (Not that you can expect the Federal Judiciary to pay much attention to that -- those joyless communists are scheming to reduce our society to the point where parasites can make their living sleeping outside the doors of bureaucracies to grab a spot in line to sell to honest citizens.)
The more bureaucratically oriented EUian law offers it to the first filer, but that is against the US Constitution because our Congress only has the authority to offer patents to inventors, not "first to filers." (Not that you can expect the Federal Judiciary to pay much attention to that -- those joyless communists are scheming to reduce our society to the point where parasites can make their living sleeping outside the doors of bureaucracies to grab a spot in line to sell to honest citizens.)
