February 15, 2002
From the desk of Jane Galt:Greg Hlatky from A Dog's
Greg Hlatky from A Dog's Life sends a more detailed answer to my question about the BT patent:
The patent (U.S. 4,873,662) was filed in 1976, but didn't issue until 1989. Under the law at that time, patents have a term of 17 years. The law was subsequently changed in 1995 (I believe) to a term of 20 years after filing.The long time between filing and issuance isn't all that unusual. I recently
had a patent issue 14 years after the original case was filed and I have
several more that are still in prosecution 12 years after filing.
It all becomes clear. Much thanks to Mr. Hlatky, and to Steven Den Beste, who gave the short answer over there in the comments. Posted by Jane Galt at February 15, 2002 06:33 PM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound links