[Asterisk-Dev] VoIP SPAM, what's next ?

[Rich Adamson]

> As I recall, proving prior art requires more than "witnesses" that say you
> talked about something at a certain time.
> 
> At my (former) company, at the strong suggestion of our patent attorney, we
> maintained a written patent notebook, where we detailed in writing every
> idea that we thought might be unique and possibly patentable.  Each entry
> was signed at the time of creation by the "inventor" and 2 witnesses.  This
> formality generally will help you if you later want to contest a patent,
> under the prior art argument.
> 
> Another argument to contest a patent is that you can show that your idea has
> been commercially implemented and sold to a customer, and you can clearly
> document the dates.
> 
> But really, patents are a legal cat-and-mouse game, and you should have deep
> pockets to play.

And another approach that is frequently recommended for small organizations
is to document the thoughts/process, and send via Certified mail to
establish timeframes, etc.

Rich