Re: Hi is this critical??

[jbradford@dial.pipex.com]

> On Tue, 2002-09-17 at 12:09, Russell King wrote:
> > Then you find out that its been used in the world cup.  You try to
> > return it to the vendor, but the vendor says its your fault for
> > dropping the drive.  You protest, but the vendor refuses to listen
> > because they've got their technology that says so in their product.
> 
> Then you take them to the small claims court. Its their burden of proof.
> Or in the US I imagine you file a class action lawsuit, but before you
> can file it the features go away because someone else sues them for
> patent infringement instead ;)

I want to file a patent on using hard disks as footballs.  I claim prior art, because I kicked a, (non-functional), disk across a room in front of the person who owned it, (with their permission), about five years ago, and they would verify that.

So, how do I go about filing a patent request in the EU, Japan, and the U.S.A.?

Incidently unlimited permission is granted to use disks containing only GNU/Linux software as footballs without royalties.  All other usage of disks as footballs will be considered on a per case basis.

Note that this only applies to hard disks, (IDE and SCSI), *NOT* floppy disks, or optical media.

John.