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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (122574)	12/30/2003 10:06:29 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Re: "spending spree" - you know how astronauts have to burn off speed in order to safely enter the atmosphere? Well, I have to burn off money in order to safely enter the taxosphere. But I think we're in AMT (alternate minimum tax) land, no escape.

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (122574)	12/30/2003 10:19:25 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

From the hubby: 1) US just started publishing patent applications. Europe has published patent applications for a while. A lot of what is called "European patents" are actually patent applications. 2) Actual examination in Europe is an adversarial process and is not done unless requested, so a lot of European patents have never been examined. In the US, all patents are examined. 3) Also, European examination tends to be more lax than US examination. He has personal experience with patents which were granted under the European system which he examined in the US and there was prior art that was not even worth arguing about, the patent should never have been granted. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hubby has been examining patents since 1988, all in the same "art unit" (specialty) which is environmental in nature. He liked it better when the prior art was stored on paper in "shoe" sized boxes, the same way Thomas Jefferson set it up. But for the rest of the world, having it on computer is nice. He used to be able to keep stuff on paper just for himself but can't do that anymore, it's all "paperless" which means that if there is an appeal or a re-exam, there is no paper record, and no paper file to refer to. All electronic. His computer monitor is around 21", vertical flat screen. He used to be able to have multiple screens open at once but for some reason they can't do that anymore. Anyway, I get an earful everytime I ask him about work, so mostly I don't. ;^) Everything is confidential until it's published, and we are both prohibited by law from investing in anything that's related to his art unit, not that his art unit is all that cutting edge. He's very serious about it, too. He used to have a secret clearance at another job, and he really does not blab.