At worst the 20 years run to Nov 2016
The 20 years runs from the date of the first patent application. The Nov 1995 date was for the provisional application.
The 'provisional application' is important because WDDD had started to show the system, so the provisional needed to be filed if they were not ready to do a 'patent'. The provisional date is important because it shows that WDDD filed within a year of the product being 'out in public' and to make sure that they can claim this date in case anyone else tries to claim that others had 'prior art' before the filing. The provisional application date is not when the 20 years starts.
The date the 'patent' is filed is when the 20 years starts. That was November 12, 1996. Twenty years from that give you November 11, 2016.
The timeline and how three important dates relate to each other are:
1: The product is 'out in public'. There are all kinds of variations on what it means to be 'out in public' and how to start measuring the one year time.
As an example, let us say you have a new type of paint that is supposed to last longer and better than what is now on the market. As part of the testing, you paint the side of a building to test the paint over the course of three years. While the new paint was 'out in public'; the one year time to file does not start to run because it was still being tested and not ready to be sold.
Now let us change the example, let us say the painting of the building was only to make sure the color would come out right when the paint dried. You paint the side of the building in summer of 2010, it works, and then you do not file a patent until summer of 2012. In this example, more than one year has passed so with the product being 'out in public' so it can't be patented.
2: Within one year of the product being 'out in public', a 'provisional application' or 'patent' must be filed.
3: If a 'provisional application' was filed, then a 'patent' must be filed within one year of the filing of a provisional application.
I would suggest that if someone has something to be patented, they try to avoid a provisional application and just work on filing the patent as soon as possible to avoid problems like WDDD is having here.
Another problem is that even when infringed, I believe that you can only get damages from the date of the patent being filed. The provisional application just allows you to establish a date for purposes of establishing the dates for prior art attacks in the future and to chain back to the date when the product was 'out in public'. I do not think you can collect any damages for the time period when there was only a provisional application in effect.
Louis J. Desy Jr.
LouisDesyjr@gmail.com
