[time-nuts] WWVB for Time Nuts

[Dr. David Kirkby (Kirkby Microwave Ltd)]

On 10 Aug 2014 05:39, "Jim Lux" <jimlux at earthlink.net> wrote:

> (but, I gotta say that a lot of the patents that get published in the
back of things like IEEE Ant and Prop Magazine seem, to me, to be pretty
obvious..)

I have not looked at patents recently,  but most I have looked in the past
are  fairly obvious to someone skilled in that area. Another large group
appears to be useless things.

Perhaps time-nuts should stick on a web site a list of 100 obvious things
that they believe someone might just try to patent.  Once an idea is
disclosed like that, it should stop a patent being issued. Perhaps a
braille clock with an internal atomic frequency reference. I don't suppose
anyone has made one, as the demand would be low, but it is in my a opinion
fairly obvious approach for a skilled person.

I assume there is some time delay (probably in the range 100 us to 10s)
between one observing a clock and one's brain decoding it. So for a person
to believe that they know the time, the clock actually has to display it a
bit fast.

But more seriously,  one could probably have some impact on time nut
related patents by documenting semi obvious things on a web site in
advance.

I recall being at the patent office in London and see someone had a patent
on a screen built into a microwave oven hooked upto a video camera so you
could check on the security of your premises while cooking.

I guess with China pretty much ignoring patents, it might become more
attractive to keep something a trade secret rather than patent it.

I believe Samsung and Apple have recently agreed to drop patent
infringement cases against each other outside the USA

http://www.forbes.com/sites/amitchowdhry/2014/08/06/apple-and-samsung-drop-patent-disputes-against-each-other-outside-of-the-u-s/

I know BT and Marconi did a similar thing, as I guess that they realised
that they were spending an excessive amount of money fighting each other
over patent infringement.

Dave.