One Voice Technologies, Inc. (fka OVOE)

[bulls9999]

Wilyum,

Patent submission (in this case, Google's) requires that you list the 'prior art' that is out there. Failure to do so gives companies that want to challenge your patent the groundwork to do so for 'failing to cite prior art' (would result in delays).

I'm somewhat familiar with patent issues mostly from my friend who owns a small company (~$5 mill rev's) that has had his patents challenged by some Fortune 100 companies. He's won both (once because he was supported by another Fortune 100 company for all patent litigation costs (~$60,000/month for 2 years) because they didn't want the other Fortune 100 company to win out, and another where he was forced to add about 15 prior art references and delayed his patent award for 3 years.

Here's a thread that has patent professors, litigators, law school students discussing specifics of 'prior art':

http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2007/04/pinciting_prior.html