Hi,
Well, now you're in trouble...
Seems like I violated that one *today*. For a 'tape' concert in a
few weeks I was asked to modify some stereo recordings just to
give them a more 'spatial' feel when reproduced in surround, and
without adding reverb or room reflections. So I took 8 BP filters
acting on either L or R, and panned them around while keeping full
range L and R in front... It works !!
-- FA
dave.malham at york.ac.uk (dave.malham at york.ac.uk) wrote:
It seems you can get a patent for anything, even if totally obvious
and common practise.. - check out EP1558061A2
Well, you will be able to sleep well tonight, for the following reasons:
- in EP1558061 A2, A2 is a code for indicating that the patent
application has been published: a patent application is different from
a patent. This is the usual procedure which happens 18 months after
the priority date if the applicant wishes to have the application
published. The application is published to let the public know that
some applicant is seeking to obtain a patent on a particular subject.
- You can have a look at espacenet, the patent search database
provided by the european patent office, it is here:
http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?DB=EPODOC&II=0&adjacent=true&locale=en_EP&FT=D&date=20050727&CC=EP&NR=1558061A2&KC=A2
Following the link, you can see that the same patent application has
been published with code A3 (17.01.2007), meaning that the european
patent office delivered the search report relating to this
"invention". At the same time, you may learn what does A1, A2, A3 and
B stand for after a publication number (look in the Quick help in the
left bar). Looking at the search report, the examiner entrusted with
the search found documents using "Y"-"Y" combination, which means that
the subject-matter of the corresponding claims does not involve an
inventive step when the person skilled in the art takes into account
the teaching of the corresponding documents cited in the search report.
More important, you can check the legal status by clicking "INPADOC
legal status". Doing this, you will learn that the demand is "deemed
to be withdrawn", namely, the applicant gave up to obtain a patent on
this subject.
To conclude, you cannot get a patent for anything... and the sentence
"the patent examiner was actually an expert in hieroglyphics or
ancient Summarian writings and so he'd never been near a recording
studio or a composer of computer music" is a little bit offending. You
might just ignore how the patent system works.
Best regards,
Mathieu Guillaume
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