To: Michelino who wrote (10626 ) 8/1/1998 11:32:00 PM From: SpinShooter Respond to of 19354
Hi Michelino! YES! You do voice exactly my basic point. It was indeed "FONAR" who sued, not Dr. Damadian. FONAR Corp sued about something, but only that FONAR news-release interpretation says it was actually for infringement. Patents are only loosely (for short) said to be "infringed", or, at an earlier stage, "subject to interference", but really it is all about the Claims: infringement is strictly on specific legal claims, formally written, and presented in the patent document itself. Which patent number, and which numbered-claims, were found to be "infringed"? In other words, one never infringes on a "Patent" but only specific legal/technical claims that are written in the final document sections. NOTHING in the news gives that crucial information; at least I could find nothing. So since FONAR Corp brought suit, then it could not actually be about any invention claims infringements with regard to Dr. Damadians 1974 patent on Cancer Detection by NMR Relaxation Time Measurements, because (1) FONAR Corp does not "own" that patent --- I have also never heard that Damadian later licensed his patent to FONAR, either -- and (2) USPTO 3,789,832 gives 16 completely separate invention Claims ... which ones were infringed by GE? None of them, that is the answer. This was established a decade ago in Damadian's failed Johnson and Johnson Patent Court Infringement action. No, this time the Court and damages award to FONAR could not be for that patent owned personally by Dr. Damadian, which had no valid Claims pertinent to an MRI scanner. More puzzling, it is not very much in FONAR's future interests to imply that the award was ABOUT Damadian's 1974 "Cancer Detection" patent. Their upcoming new product ideas have nothing to do with cancer diagnosis or detection. Michelino, did you look up 3,789,832, at "patent.ibm.com" and read its basic non-technical sections, e.g., the critical patent abstract? The "Cancer Detection" abstract states <quote> "An apparatus and method in which a tissue sample is positioned in nuclear induction apparatus, whereby selected nuclei are energized to higher energy states from their equilibrium states, through n. m. r. [<So far this just states that NMR is used on tissue sample, hardly novel>]. By measuring the spin-lattice relaxation time and the spin-spin relaxation time, and then comparing these relaxation times with their respective value for known normal and malignant tissue, an indication of the presence and degree of malignancy of the cancerous tissue can be obtained." <end quote> [<this indication of presence and degree malignancy was later found to be scientifically untrue in general>. Now where is some MR "image" or even a crude in-vivo workable localized scan method described? It isn't. The patent abstract itself says the invention is about "tissue samples", specimens placed in a NMR spectrometer. The GE system, and everyone else's MRI, does not do any of that kind of relaxation times, T1 and T2, measurement and comparisons against normal/malignant standards. You tell me -- I am stuck at this point. What parts in the above abstract of Damadian's 1974 issued patent were "stolen" by GE and other "Infringers"? We all here are sounding off on the wrong trail, it seems to me. And that is probably a very strong hint at FONAR's true targets. Damadian/FONAR have to have something going on that is more solid -- specific to MR-Imaging -- maybe it is something entirely apart from FONAR's corporate future. SpinShooter