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To: Dave who wrote (16712)	10/18/1998 2:12:00 PM
From: Clarksterh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Dave - Stretching pretty hard here: Let's assume you are granted a patent on an analog computer and within the disclosure you talk about computers and so forth. Within the claims (that is where you get your protection), an analog computer is never mentioned. In the next few years, digital computers come out. The chances are that you will not be granted protection on a digital computer. At the time the invention was made, digital computers were not known. First, the analogy could use a lot of work. W-CDMA is an evolution from generic mobile/cell CDMA. This is in direct contrast to the change from analog to digital computers. Other than the name (computer) and the fact that they use electricity, digital and analog computers have almost nothing to do with one another. Digital computers, by no stretch of the imagination, evolved from analog. Second, patents do often hold through a change in technology, even for something as big as the change from manual and analog to digital. See Hughes Aircraft Co. v United States (US Ct., Fed Cir 717 F. 2d 1351 (1983)). The change in bandwidth is small potatoes comparatively. (Note for those interested, it doesn't always carry over but that is often due to a poor, (i.e. self-limiting) write-up in the patent application.) Clark